Formal, corporate governance institutions in selected non-financial companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange

Abstract

Background: An adequate number of formal, corporate governance institutions is a necessary condition for prompting managerial staff to take such decisions that will be beneficial to owners. In most cases, their establishment is required by legal acts and this is why companies have the same types of formal institutions. Therefore, the observed differences between the companies in terms corporate governance do not stem from the very existence of certain formal institutions, but depend on the extent to which those entities take care of corporate governance quality and on whether formal institutions are consistent with the standards developed in order to improve the efficiency of corporate governance.
 Research purpose: The research compares formal, corporate governance institutions in 20 non- -financial companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, including 10 with the highest and 10 with the lowest market capitalisation.
 Methods: The theoretical section analyses the literature regarding the essence of corporate gover­nance and the formal and informal institutions which comprise it. The scope of the empirical research covered an analysis of formal, corporate governance institutions such as: ownership structure, general shareholder meetings, management boards, supervisory boards and their committees, corporate by­laws, and codes of good practice. In order to compare these institutions in the sample, an analysis of nu­merical data, as well as a simple statistical methods were used. The study spans the years 2016–2018.
 Conclusions: The article provides an initial description of formal, corporate governance insti­tutions in analysed companies. The entities with the highest market capitalisation were found to have been characterised by, e.g. higher concentration of ownership in the hands of the main stakeholder, greater frequency of extraordinary general meetings, higher numbers of supervisory board members and their greater independence, as well as lower changeability in the composi­tion of those bodies. The activity of supervisory boards were more effectively streamlined by specialised committees working in advisory capacities. What is more, formal institutions in those entities were created in line with the standards of corporate governance, as confirmed by stricter compliance to the Best Practice for WSE Listed Companies.