Culture and Corporate Governance: The Influence of Language and Religion in Switzerland

Volonté, Christophe

doi:10.1007/s11575-014-0216-5

Cited by 47 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 114 publications

(138 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…() suggest that culture influences corporate governance practices through national institutions. Volonté () finds that within a single institutional framework (e.g., Swiss federal corporate law), firms in Swiss–French areas and firms in Roman Catholic cantons are more likely to have one‐tier boards, whereas two‐tier boards are more prevalent in Swiss–German areas and Protestant cantons.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Religion and Corporate Governance: Evidence from 32 Countries

Kim

Daniel

2016

Asia-Pac J of Fin Stud

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study seeks to understand the effects of informal constraints, particularly religious denominations, on corporate governance. Using archival data from a panel sample of 32 countries-between 2006 and 2010-we find that a higher proportion of Protestantism is associated with stronger corporate governance after controlling for cultural, economic, legal, and institutional factors. This study provides empirical support for the socio-cultural theory, which posits that socio-cultural variables such as religion are associated with the level of agency costs (Charreaux, 2004, Corporate governance theories: From micro theories to national systems theories, Working Paper). The findings of this study contribute to the corporate governance, accounting, finance, and management literature by showing that social norms, especially religion, have a strong effect on corporate governance practices. Moreover, this study provides insights for policy makers who are interested in enhancing corporate governance, allowing them to strengthen formal constraints such as rule of law for countries where there is a low proportion of Protestants, in order to improve corporate governance.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Religion and Corporate Governance: Evidence from 32 Countries

Kim

Daniel

2016

Asia-Pac J of Fin Stud

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The long-term persistence of legal traditions affects institutional performance and therefore also prosperity (Volonté 2015). Table 3 summarises some of the performance indicators of otherwise distinct legal traditions.…”

Section: Legal Traditions and Current Institutional Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

“Ye Shall Know Them by Their Fruits”: Prosperity and Institutional Religion in Europe and the Americas

Portilla

2019

Religions

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Low competitiveness is a common denominator of historically Roman Catholic countries. In contrast, historically Protestant countries generally perform better in education, social progress, and competitiveness. Jesus Christ described the true and false prophets coming on his behalf, as follows: “Ye shall know them by their fruits”. Inspired by this parable, this paper explores the relations between religious systems (‘prophets’) and social prosperity (‘fruits’). It asks how Protestantism influences prosperity as compared to Roman Catholicism in Europe and the Americas. Most empirical studies have hitherto disregarded the institutional influence of religion. Taking the work of Max Weber as their starting point, they have instead emphasised the cultural linkage between religious adherents and prosperity. This paper tests various correlational models and draws on a comprehensive conceptual framework to understand the institutional influence of religion on prosperity in Europe and the Americas. It argues that the uneven contributions of Roman Catholicism and Protestantism to prosperity are grounded in their different historical and institutional foundations and in the theologies that are pervasive in their countries of influence.

show abstract

“…2 Economic growth (Franke et al 1991), economic development (Glahe and Vohries 1989), financial development (Beck et al 2003), financial intermediation (Aggarwal and Goodell 2010), foreign direct investment (Guiso et al 2009;Siegel et al 2013), government quality (La Porta et al 1999), international capital flows (Siegel et al 2011), board of directors (Volonté 2015) and ownership structure (Holderness 2017), pension systems (Aggarwal and Goodell 2013), leverage (Li et al 2011), cash holdings (Chen et al 2015), mergers and acquisitions (Ahern et al 2015;Frijns et al 2013;Stahl and Voigt 2008), financial contracts (Giannetti and Yafeh 2012), and cross-country venture capital flows (Bottazzi et al 2016;Dai et al 2012;Li et al 2014;Nahata et al 2014).…”

Section: Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

Individualism and Venture Capital: A Cross-Country Study

2019

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We investigate the effect of individualism-a dimension of culture that is strongly associated with entrepreneurship-on venture-capital investments using a large crosscountry sample. Our sample consists of 1496 country-year observations and includes 88 countries from 1998 to 2014. Controlling for economic conditions, the legal environment, and different aspects of culture, we find that individualism is positively and significantly related to venture-capital investments and explains 30% of crosscountry variation. This result is stable across different subsamples, several measures of venture-capital investments, and even holds when using the political system 200 years ago as an instrument for individualism. The quality of formal institutions (rule of law) and entrepreneurial attitudes (uncertainty avoidance) partially mediate the effect of individualism on venture-capital investments, while economic conditions (GDP per capita) moderate this effect.

show abstract

Culture and Corporate Governance: The Influence of Language and Religion in Switzerland

Cited by 47 publications

References 114 publications

Religion and Corporate Governance: Evidence from 32 Countries

Religion and Corporate Governance: Evidence from 32 Countries

“Ye Shall Know Them by Their Fruits”: Prosperity and Institutional Religion in Europe and the Americas

Individualism and Venture Capital: A Cross-Country Study

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About