Global Pressure, National System: How German Corporate Governance Is Changing(Cornell Studies in Political Economy)

Will the pressures of financial and product market globalization force European firms to switch from a stakeholder-based model of corporate governance to a shareholder-based, Anglo-Saxon system? While many scholars of globalization have long assumed convergence toward the shareholder model, little empirical research on the firm level on this assumed dynamic exists.In Global Pressure, National System, which makes a strong case against convergence, Alexander Borsch focuses on the impact of globalization and regulatory changes on German corporate governance, which is widely seen as the prototype of a stakeholder system. Borsch presents the results of his in-depth research on three German firms that are to varying degrees exposed to financial and product market pressures: Siemens, Deutsche Telekom, and Bosch. Despite the pressures from financial markets and global competition, he finds that none of these firms have extensively restructured along Anglo-Saxon lines.Investigating the main dimensions of restructuring-financial, organizational, and portfolio restructuring-as well as internationalization strategies, Borsch finds that adaptation of selected features of shareholder-based governance is quite possible. However, because the prevailing product market strategies of German firms are solidly based on the stakeholder model, change will be limited to those elements that do not destroy the firms' competitive advantage. Hence, although these firms may alter some of their business practices in response to pressures from the global marketplace, their core institutions remain stable.

About the Author :
Alexander Borsch has been a researcher at the European University Institute in Florence and now works as Manager of International Pension Research in the asset management industry.

Review :
"The great strength of Borsch's study is that it demonstrates that capitalism and markets do not exist outside of national culture to the extent htta mnay economists believe. Further, national and corporate culture cannot stop globalization, but culture is critical to how a firm or a society weathjers global pressures."-Peter Utgaard, German Studies Review "Alexander Borsch uses changes in German corporate governance-illustrated by case studies of three very different firms-to assess arguments about institutional convergence in the advanced countries. Global Pressure, National System shows just how much managers are constrained by larger institutional factors. At the same time, by highlighting the heterogeneity of firms, Borsch builds valuable bridges between the historical institutionalists and the dynamic-capabilities approach from strategic management."-Nicholas Ziegler, University of California, Berkeley