Corporate governance is a very poorly defined concept; it covers so many different economic issues. It is difficult to give a first class definition in one sentence. Corporate governance has succeeded in attracting a great deal of interests of the public because of its obvious importance for the economic health of corporations and society in general. As a result, different people have come up with different definitions that basically mirror their special interest in the field. It is difficult to see that this 'disorder' will be any different in the future so the best way to define the concept is perhaps to list a few of the different definitions rather than just mentioning one definition.
"Corporate governance is a field in economics that investigates how to secure/motivate efficient management of corporations by the use of incentive mechanisms, such as contracts, organizational designs and legislation. This is often limited to the question of improving financial performance, for example, how the corporate owners can secure/motivate that the corporate managers will deliver a competitive rate of return." www.encycogov.com, Mathiesen [2002].
According to Shleifer and Vishny in The Journal of Finance, "corporate governance deals with the ways in which suppliers of finance to corporations assure themselves of getting a return on their investment."
J. Wolfensohn, president of the Word bank, quoted by an article in Financial Times in June of 1999 that "corporate governance is about promoting corporate fairness, transparency and accountability."
"Corporate Gover ...