Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to promote research about corporate governance in Latin America. A set of studies published in English since 2000 is identified and classified. Also, organizations and journals are identified that support research about corporate governance.Design/methodology/approach -One question guides this literature review. What pattern of research development, if any, is reflected in the literature reviewed?Findings -Analysis shows research has moved from an initial literature descriptive primarily of national practices, to an intermediate literature with questions largely implied from inquiry about the context of change, to a current literature designed explicitly to assess change.Practical implications -The overarching implication of recent literature is that good governance has social benefit as studied. The dominant type of recent study is grounded in finance and designed to address a specific question by adopting a market perspective and by applying methods of empirical analysis. These studies tend to find association between governance and firm performance, firm valuation or other measures of financial success.Originality/value -The value of examining literature is in the understanding and the direction it provides. Recent research results show good governance is beneficial for understanding the behavior of markets, and this may influence business policy and public policy as well as future research. And, for future direction, the study of corporate governance literature suggests a progression to multiple perspectives relative to research design that is inclusive of contributions from a diversity of disciplines and employs a variety of methodologies. Keywords South America, Corporate governance, Research methods Paper type Literature review
Selection of LiteratureWorks published in English with content specific to Latin America were selected for review. Many of these publications were identified on the ProQuestw electronic journal service. Special emphasis was given to scholarly literature published since January 1, 2000. The definition of corporate governance that bounded the literature search is the definition provided by Oman of corporate governance as ''the private and public institutions -both formal and informal -which together govern the relationships between those who manage corporations ('corporate insiders') and those who invest in them'' (Oman, 2003a, pp. 3). This definition was used because it is broad in scope while establishing a distinct concept based on relationships and because it is consistent with notions of corporate governance in developing countries. Guided by this definition, the selected papers either provide a substantive discussion of corporate governance or utilize the concept of governance as an independent variable or as a dependent variable. The areas bounded by the description, Latin America, include the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, and all of South America.The number of works published in English about corporate governance within Latin America...
