Overview of Corporate Governance Issues for Co-operatives

Shaw, Linda

International Finance Corporation, Washington, DC

关键词: corporate governance;    co-operatives;    non-bank financial institutions;    financial co-operatives;    microfinance;   

RP-ID  :  112582

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Good governance is now accepted as vitalto achieving the Millennium Development Goals and as apre-condition for sustainable economic growth. Ensuringbetter governance of corporations, financial institutionsand markets is increasingly recognised for developingcountries despite the limited number of firms there withwidely traded shares (Oman and Blume 2005). For developingcountries, significant benefits can be linked to highercorporate governance standards in the private sector. Theseinclude better access to external finance, lower costs ofcapital and better firm performance (Claessens 2003). Thecorporate governance agenda has also been broadened by therecognition of the reach of corporate models characterisedby different forms and structures to the Anglo-Americanmodel of an investor owned firm. However until now littleattention has been paid to the governance needs of otherinstitutional forms of business such as co-operativesdespite their considerable presence in many developingcountries. The co-operative sector as a whole remains poorlyunderstood and its specific governance challenges remain asyet largely unexplored. This aim of this paper is to beginto remedy this absence. Taking as a starting point thedistinct nature of co-operatives, relevant trends and issueswithin corporate governance are explored within theframework of the co-operative sector.