Study on Corporate Governance in Emerging Markets: A Focus on Compliance of South African and South Korean Listed Companies

Purpose – First, this study contextually examines the governance codes of South Africa and South Korea. Second, it analyzes board features of South African (JSE) Mainboard and South Korean (KRX) KOSPI-listed companies. Design/methodology – This review is qualitative and uses data from the annual reports of the selected markets’ companies, respective exchanges’ official web sites and corporate governance-related web sites in order to examine the corporate governance practices in the two markets. In addition, Nvivo is employed in analyzing the content of the corporate governance codes of the selected countries. Findings – Our analysis indicates that the corporate governance codes of the two countries are evolving to keep up with the international trend of principles-based approach. The composition of the board of directors (BODs) of non-financial companies of both South Africa and South Korea shows no significant variation between the companies with regards to the executive (inside) and non executive (outside) directors. On the contrary, there is a significant variation between South African and South Korean listed companies with respect to diversity. Originality/value – While previous studies are centered on the impact of governance codes on performance, this study intends to contextually evaluate the codes and features of South Africa and South Korea listed companies. This is essential and timely for regulators and policy makers given the importance of corporate governance features such as board independence and diversity in recent times.