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Review

Corporate Governance Research in Asian Countries: A Bibliometric and Content Analysis (2001–2021)

by
Indah Fajarini Sri Wahyuningrum
1,*,
Amin Chegenizadeh
2,
Natasya Ghinna Humaira
3,
Mochamad Arief Budihardjo
3,4 and
Hamid Nikraz
2
1
Department of Accounting, Faculty of Economics, Universitas Negeri Semarang, Semarang 50229, Indonesia
2
School of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6102, Australia
3
Environmental Sustainability Research Group, Universitas Diponegoro, Semarang 50275, Indonesia
4
Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Diponegoro, Semarang 50275, Indonesia
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2023, 15(8), 6381; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15086381
Submission received: 5 January 2023 / Revised: 26 February 2023 / Accepted: 3 March 2023 / Published: 7 April 2023
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Abstract

:
Corporate failure suggests that weak corporate governance leads to frail institutions and exposes them to severe crises. Asian countries have faced financial crises in three different periods, most recently due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A crisis will trigger structural changes in corporate governance to enable firms to either respond to, or prevent, the reoccurrence of potentially similar events. The characteristic of corporate governance practice in Asian countries are also unique due to some institutional and informal factors. These will alter direction and future trend of research in corporate governance in Asian region. The objective of this study is to utilize a bibliometric analysis which focuses on research trends and themes, and citations (with additional inclusive visualization) and perform in-depth content analysis to trace the evolution and identify knowledge of corporate governance in Asian countries from 2001 to 2021. Following bibliometric analysis, a sample of 656 articles on corporate governance in Asian countries has been extracted and analyzed from the Scopus database. The results indicate that there is a growing of interest in corporate governance in Asian countries from 2001 to 2021. Eight major themes have been recognized: corporate governance, corporate social responsibility and financial performance, corporate strategy and performance, agency theory, corporate sustainability, audit and agency problems, firm size, and business ethics. Major findings, shortcomings, and directions for future research are also discussed in this study. In general, most cited articles related to corporate governance theme explain the importance of corporate governance in companies with the focus on preventing financial fraud, impact on earnings management, and cost of equity capital in the market and reporting methods.

1. Introduction

Good corporate governance is an important factor behind the sustainable success and performance of a company regardless of its size [1,2,3]. Corporate governance can be understood as a compensation for the (sometimes) different interests of stakeholders. It can refer as much to focuses on hierarchical relationships between shareholders and the management board or between the management board and the auditors [4]. However, the differences in individual corporate governance systems in each country lead to different research focuses [4]. This is especially aligned when it comes to companies in the United States and other developed countries where firm ownership and control are usually separated. By contrast, the company is effectively owned and managed by a founding family or a large business group, as is more typical in developing countries with independent directors who can monitor the managers/owners on behalf of minority shareholders and other stakeholders [5].
Corporate governance (CG) is a set of rules for an organizational structure that forms the basis for the correct operation of a business and for achieving corporate objectives [6]. In other words, a series of activities and rules aimed at making companies follow specific codes, as to the processes through which companies are directed and controlled; these rules include both the laws of the country in which the company operates and internal company processes [7]. Corporate governance literature encompasses contributions from many aspects of the field, including firm performance [8], voluntary disclosure [9], bankruptcy [10], earnings management [11], connection between corporate governance and stakeholder relations and corporate social responsibilities [12,13], and the relationship between corporate governance and top executive compensation [14].
Recently, corporate misbehavior has suggested that weak corporate governance leads to frail institutions and exposes them to severe crises [15,16]. Asian corporations are not an exception with regard to this vulnerability, given they were severely affected by the 1997–1998 financial crisis in their region and by the 2007–2009 global financial crisis (GFC), mainly due to fragile corporate governance systems [17,18]. Furthermore, in 2020, the Asian financial crisis occurred again due to the COVID-19 pandemic [19]. Crises will trigger structural changes in corporate governance to enable firms to either respond or prevent to the occurrences of potentially similar event [20]. These situations will attract researchers to conduct research related to corporate governance continuing the existing research.
To recognize the existing research and establishing future research on corporate governance, a bibliometric analysis is required. Bibliometric analysis is a statistical and quantitative technique adopted to analyze many scientific studies focusing on trends and research themes, and citations with additional inclusive visualization [21,22]. Bibliometric analysis allows the researchers to span a long period and it can help pinpoint the most influential works and their interrelationships. Furthermore, a bibliometric analysis of the literature complemented by a systematic literature review method with adopting in-depth topic content was accomplished to map the best practices in scientific knowledge [23].
Previous studies have performed bibliometric analysis such as global research on corporate governance and board attributes [5], corporate governance research in German-speaking countries [4], sustainability in Islamic banking [24], the need of tools for sustainable development in banking and financial systems [25], gender diversity in corporate governance [26], the impact of Islamic corporate governance on economic, social, and environmental [27] development of corporate governance literature in Malaysia [28] and the involvement of corporate sustainability in sustainable development [29].
The corporate government practices differ across country and region due to various institutional and informal factors such as regulation and social norm [30]. Specifically in Asian region, the corporate governance practices are affected by additional perspectives and required to be observed extensively [31]. However, very limited bibliometric analysis was found on the topic of corporate governance in Asian countries and it is crucial to assess the evolution of corporate governance in Asian countries.
Therefore, the objective of this study is to utilize bibliometric analysis with additional in-depth content analysis to assess the evolution, and identify knowledge, of corporate governance in Asian countries as a discipline from 2001 to 2021. To the best of authors’ knowledge, there are no existing studies in the literature that combine bibliometrics and in-depth content analysis on corporate governance. Therefore, the key contributions of this study are publication statistics and finding popular keywords in the last 20 years, identification of corporate governance journals and the most prolific authors, identification of participation by institutions and countries, research trends on corporate governance, and in-depth content analysis of the 10 most influential articles. In addition, major findings, shortcomings, and directions for future research are discussed based on the findings and evaluation of the current research trends. This article can be a guideline for exploring and developing corporate governance topics for researchers in the future and other related parties.
The article is organized as follows. Section 2 presents the methodology used for the purpose of this study, such as data collection, data extraction, and data analysis (bibliometric and content analysis). Section 3 describes the results and discussion of bibliometric mapping of extant studies, and in-depth content analysis of the top 10 most influential articles. Section 4 is the final part of the article that provides the main conclusions, shortcomings and scope for further research.

2. Methodology

2.1. Data Collection

Figure 1 depicts the research design of this study. A comprehensive online search was conducted to collect articles that had been published between January 2001 and December 2021, using the Scopus database. The data were collected on 1 March 2022. According to Dias, Rodrigues [32] and Pizzi, Caputo [23], Scopus is an excellent database for bibliometric analysis because it has limited the risks, biases, and potential negligence of using a narrow set of journals. Moreover, since 1996, the Scopus citation database has had broader coverage in social science, especially for the topic of corporate governance [33,34]. Scopus also offers an easiness of data retrieval to bibliographic data required by bibliometric software [35].
Several criteria were applied while collecting and analyzing publications from Scopus. To perform full-text searches on titles, abstracts and authors’ keywords, the researchers ran the search query in Scopus database using the operator “TITLE-ABS-KEY (corporate AND governance)”. The query identified a preliminary search of 29,303 documents. Furthermore, the following are details of the exclusion criteria applied:
  • First, the year filter was applied; only documents from 2001 to 2021 were used and as a result 20,800 document were selected.
  • Second, the document type filter was applied: only documents of the “Article” type were selected and 20,388 article were selected.
  • Third, the publication stage filter was applied; only articles in the “Final” stage were used, and as a result 19,712 articles were selected.
  • Fourth, the source title type was applied: Top ten most productive journals indexed by Scopus (Q1–Q2), such as Corporate Governance an International Review (531), Journal of Business Ethics (385), Journal of Corporate Finance (369), Sustainability Switzerland (339), Corporate Governance Bingley (331), Journal of Management and Governance (218), Journal of Financial Economics (173), Corporate Governance (161), Managerial Auditing Journal (158), and Journal of Banking and Finance (153). In total, 3591 article were selected.
  • Fifth, the language filter was applied; only documents written in the “English” language were chosen, and a total of 3591 articles were selected.
  • Sixth, the country/territory filter was applied; 30 Asian Countries were chosen, such as China, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, United Arab Emirates, Japan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Turkey, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Viet Nam, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Yemen, Cyprus, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Palestine, Syrian Arab Republic, Brunei Darussalam, and Kyrgyzstan. As a result, 995 articles were selected.
  • Finally, 995 articles were reviewed by reading the titles and abstracts following the inclusion criteria, which related to this topic. A total of 656 articles were used as final sample for analysis.

2.2. Data Extraction

The sample of articles was extracted in comma-separated value (CSV) format from the Scopus database, including citation information, abstracts, keywords, bibliographical information, and reference information. Subsequently, the data underwent the fundamental step for further analysis, namely data cleaning [36]. In this study, data were cleaned using Microsoft Excel to remove blanks and erroneous data, to remove duplicates, to change double spacing to a single spacing, correct spelling errors, and merge singular and multiple keywords.

2.3. Data Analysis

2.3.1. Bibliometric Analysis

This study’s bibliometrics used the characteristics of the literature as the research object and used statistical and mathematical methods to quantitatively analyze critical elements (author, affiliation, country, citation, etc.), distribution structures, and directions for future research in the literature by providing an inclusive visualization [37,38]. Once the sample of articles from the Scopus database was in the CSV format and was cleaned, the bibliometric analysis was carried out using VOSviewer 1.6.18. This study used VOSviewer software to discover and visualize a scientific map. The methodology and assumptions of bibliometric analysis were described by Van Eck and Waltman [39]. This study established the following bibliometric parameters, such as publication statistics and finding popular keywords in the last 20 years, identification of corporate governance publication journals, the most prolific authors, participations by institutions and countries, and research trends on corporate governance.

2.3.2. Content Analysis

This study included content analysis to investigate the dominant logic, approach, emphasis, as well as identifying cognitive schemas and extracting in-depth insights from the existing research studies on corporate governance [40,41]. In line with previous bibliometric studies [42], content analysis of influential articles was adopted as a complement to bibliometric analysis. In this study, the authors conducted an in-depth content analysis of the top 10 most influential articles.

3. Result and Discussion

3.1. Publication Statistics and Finding Popular Keywords in the Last 20 Years

Statistical reports provide a clear and accurate picture about recent progress in corporate governance research. To date, there are 656 papers published that contribute to the study of corporate governance. For this part, a statistical analysis is conducted with the focus on the last decade’s publications. The developed data, seen in Figure 2, indicate fluctuating and ambiguous progress concerning productivity, yet still indicate an increasing trend. Thus, the authors can predict even more significant improvements in this area of research in the coming years.
Table 1 provides further details on the recent progress of the research and helps to identify the evolution of research themes from the five most frequently occurring keywords over the last 10 years. It is clear that every year there are 25 countries on average contributing various corporate governance studies, and that older articles would receive more citations; meanwhile, there has not any data regarding citations for 2021 publications. An article by [43] was shown to be the most popular article published in the last decade having been cited 26 times. The article discussed how multinational enterprises (MNEs) commit themselves to corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in developing countries subject to the size of their subsidiaries, distance from the headquarters, and experience in their host country. The study proved that the said factors linearly influenced the persistence of MNEs in dedicating themselves to CSR in developing countries, and encouraged future research of other firms’ commitment to CSR in different cases, particularly for firms in emerging economies and countries and to extend its scope of measurement.
The trends found in keywords may give a deeper understanding of research popularity in different takes on corporate governance research. The researchers can see that, throughout the decade, different approaches to CSR and sustainability efforts has become the most popular topic for corporate governance publications since 2014 as well as from 2016 to 2020. Other popular topics for the publications include corporate board structure and information disclosure (2012), corporate governance particularly in emerging economies (2013), strategy and performance (2015), and maintaining firm performance in crisis (2021). In the future, more research regarding CSR and sustainability reports can be expected and they will again become the focus for many years to come as well as other topics depending on regional and worldwide social situations.

3.2. Identification of Corporate Governance Publication Journals and the Most Prolific Authors

Table 2 shows the 10 most influential journals on corporate governance studies throughout the years. Most of the journals focus on business and economic-related subjects. Also visualized in Figure 3, is how Corporate Ownership & Control as well as Corporate Governance (Bingley) dominated with the most publications in the research with 130 articles in each journal according to the data obtained, where each made up to 19.82% of total 656 publications. The two journals specifically highlight different contexts of corporate governance issues, for example corporate control and financial reporting, in various forms of studies. However, they were not found to be the sources most referred to even when combined. The Journal of Corporate Finance focuses on different takes on corporate finance studies including governance and financial structure, and the date show that is the most cited journal for this research field with total 3375 citations at the time of writing, despite only contributing 8.99% to total publications. Looking at their respective indicators, the Journal of Corporate Finance is among the most prestigious journals with an H-index of 109 and SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) of 2.1 and it belongs to the first quartile. Interestingly, Sustainability (Switzerland), an open access journal, ranks three as journals with 199 articles in corporate governance area. Since open access journals are highly visible to the readers, articles published in Sustainability may have big influence on the future direction of research in corporate governance.
In total, 1387 authors have contributed research to the literature on corporate governance and the number is expected to grow in the future. As shown in Table 3, Lee J. is the most prolific author in this research field with eight articles published since the first one recorded in 2004. Lee J.’s most popular publication was entitled Economic and Social Upgrading in Global Value Chains and Industrial Clusters: Why Governance Matters [44]; this study tried to understand if global value chains and industrial clusters are related to corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts. Out of the top 10 most prolific authors, Firth M. has the highest H-index number (49), and the paper ‘Ownership structure, corporate governance, and fraud: Evidence from China’ [45] is his most cited paper with 461 citations. The publication discussed whether ownership structure and governance characteristics played a role in corporate fraud cases in China.

3.3. Participations by Institutions and Countries

Various institutions from around the world have participated in producing studies regarding corporate governance. Table 4 presents the 10 most productive institutions in terms of articles about this topic with China being home country to the three of them. The Olayan School of Business, the American University of Beirut at Lebanon contributed the most studies so far, with five recorded articles in the database. This institution is then followed by Dongbei University of Finance and Economics (School of Accounting), Solbridge International School of Business (Department of Finance and Accounting), Harbin Institute of Technology (School of Management), Kookmin University (College of Business Administration), and Chung-Ang University (School of Business Administration, College of Business and Economics), with four articles each. In terms of influence, National Taiwan University is regarded as the most influential institution with 112 citations made in its publications far. This reflects the importance of establishing effective corporate governance system for businesses in Asia region.
Table 5 shows that 10 out of the 30 countries contributed to the recent progress in corporate governance research. China is both the most productive and most influential country with 147 articles and 4108 citations made to date.
The researchers noticed that, in the database, most journals are working in collaboration with different institutions in various countries. To analyze this situation, the VOSviewer software is a practical tool for obtaining a clearer picture of each country’s co-authorship relations through network visualization [54]. Total link strength indicated by the analysis shows the number of times an item is linked to another item in the reference database [55]. This can be seen from the results in Figure 4 indicating that most countries have close correlation to one another with regards of co-authorship, with the exception of Turkey, Thailand, and Bahrain. China has the highest number of total link strength with 48, suggesting that it has stronger international collaboration compared to the other 24 countries.

3.4. Research Trends on Corporate Governance

The main topic and the details of the research are shown in Table 6. The occurrence of keywords based on the title and abstract of each article was analyzed using VOS viewer software. The researchers also present several articles published during the last five years that are related to corporate governance. Meanwhile, Figure 5 shows the trends in the dominant topics between 2017 and 2021. In 2017, the topics of corporate governance and ownership were found to be the most frequently occurring. Then, in 2018, corporate social responsibility and the sustainability of firms became the topics most discussed by researchers. The amount of research on corporate governance continued to grow until 2021, and several researchers examine the relevance of this topic to the view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Table 6 shows that studies related to corporate governance have been divided into eight major themes that cover topics on corporate governance, corporate social responsibility and financial performance, corporate strategy and performance, agency theory, corporate sustainability, audit and agency problems, firm size, and business ethics. The trends in research on corporate governance identified are related to the corporate governance index that affects firm performance, such as a study by Bhatt and Bhatt [8] who conducted their research in Malaysia. In addition, the researchers found a similar study by Tanjung [56] conducted in Indonesia and supplemented by an analysis of corporate governance compliance. Discussion topics on corporate governance also include board characteristics and ownership concentration [57], CEO turnover and institutional investors [58], investor protection related to emerging markets [59], the role of transparency in performance and corporate governance, especially in the context of humanitarian logistics [60]. The topic of the influence of corporate governance on privatization in Nigeria is discussed by Usman and Yakubu [61].
The second cluster raises the topic of corporate social responsibility and financial performance [62] which also intersects with organizational performance [63]. Topics covered also include board diversity; age, gender, education, and tenure [52], board size and board independence [64]. In addition, Khan, Zahid [65] also discussed whether the board composition and CEO duality have environmental and social accountability impacts. The analysis includes discussion of a regression model [66]. Corporate social responsibility has been discussed in the context of various sectors, one of which is the energy sector [67] and banking [68]. The third cluster of most dominant topics discussed have been corporate strategy [69] and performance [70]. Environmental, social, governance (ESG) activities have an effect on firm performance and industry characteristics [70]. In addition, many topics which are related to equity in the banking sector have been raised [71], investment and capital market [72]. Meanwhile Sencal and Asutay [73] took a look at a different topic, namely determining ethical disclosure in the Islamic bank sector in accordance with religious compliance.
Board of directors and agency theory is a topic that is widely discussed in the fourth cluster; it is also related to corporate ownership and shareholders [74]. In addition, the topics found in this cluster include the development of the audit committee [75], earning management [76] and financial reporting which are influenced by several factors such as religious index membership [77]. The topic of initial public offerings is also raised in this cluster, for example the study by Wang, Jiao [78] on the role of minority state ownership in initial public offerings. The topics in the fifth cluster are dominated by corporate sustainability, such as the study by Mahmood, Kouser [79] in developing countries, and Ikram, Zhang [80] who developed a study based on information during the COVID-19 pandemic. Other topics that emerged were in the form of decision-making regarding the company’s sustainability, including; multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) and decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) [81]. In addition, topics regarding innovation are mainly related to the stock market [82], enterprise innovation [83] and responsive innovation [71] is also widely discussed.
Popular topics discussed in the sixth cluster are audit quality, including the study by Lee, Rhee [84] which the effect of audit quality on the participation of foreign shareholders and investors, and board structure [85]. In addition, the topics found are also related to agency problems and the influence of family ownership on a company [48]. The topic of incentives that is more specific is the impact of director compensation incentives on firm expansion [86]. The topic of internal audit is also discussed along with its impact on risk management [87]. Firm size is the dominant topic in research related to corporate governance in this cluster. Case studies taken from the agricultural industry located in Indonesia were found [88]. Other topics raised include stakeholder orientation [89], and panel data and policy [90]. The last dominant topic in the eighth cluster was business ethics, for example by Chen, Hasan [91] in the banking sector.

3.5. In-Depth Content Analysis of the 10 Most Influential Articles

Table 7 presents the ten most cited publications. Most of them discuss the influence of governance in companies. Article number 1 discusses ownership structure and boardroom characteristics in the context of corporate financial fraud. In their research, Chen, Firth [45] used univariate analyzes and multivariate probit models to test the hypotheses. The multivariate results revealed that the meeting room characteristics are an essential factor in explaining fraud. This trigger of fraud can be reduced by increasing the proportion of outsiders on the board because such members conduct monitoring of the management and help prevent fraud. It was also revealed that shareholder type significantly encouraged fraud while the presence of foreign investors inhibited fraud. In the probit model, the kind of owner has minimal impact on the propensity for a firm to commit fraud. This research conducted by Chen, Firth [45] has limitations, such as only researching Chinese companies; the results cannot be used globally. Therefore, it is hoped that further research can reach a wider area.
In addition, the second article the authors reviewed, which was written by Joh [92]. Joh [92], examines the impact of conflict of interest between shareholders under a non-conforming corporate governance mechanism on the company’s overall pre-crisis performance. Joh [92] used detailed information on South Korean companies from 1993 to 1997 to show that those with more significant ownership and control gaps were less profitable. Moreover, the paper also shows that the companies that control shareholders have good ownership. In addition, the shift of resources to affiliated companies further reduced profitability. Such conflicts of interest between shareholders were more severe in public companies than in private companies. Joh [92] shows that controlling shareholders, substantial chaebol (a large family-owned business conglomerate) and public companies, use the internal capital markets for personal gain at the expense of other shareholders. They concluded that South Korea’s weak corporate governance system offers few barriers to the takeover by controlling shareholders in spite of minority shareholders. The companies’ performance had deteriorated over time, even before the crisis. Joh [92] has limitations, such as the scope of the research is only limited to one country, namely South Korea. Consequently, the findings cannot be generalized. In addition, the study did not mention how bad the companies’ profitability would increase the likelihood of a crisis. Therefore, it is hoped that further research can examine policies that would improve a country’s company governance system to support a combination of economic process and stability.
In the evaluation of article 2, which examines the impact of conflicts of interests amongst shareholders under a non-conforming corporate governance mechanism on an organization’s overall performance prior to a crisis, the researchers also considered article 3, written by Baek, Kang [49], famous the significance of company governance measures in figuring out corporation cost at some point of a crisis. These articles have the identical restricted scope of research as they look at only one country, specifically South Korea. It is already well established that companies with greater equity holdings in the hands of foreign investors experience smaller declines in terms of the proportion of costs. According to this evaluation, chaebol companies with ownership focused on affiliated companies show a more significant reduction in fairness cost. Companies that control shareholder voting rights in excess of their cash flow rights, and those that have borrowed more from the central bank also experience greater declines in returns. These findings support the idea that variations in corporate governance play an important role in determining costs at certain times of crisis. In this evaluation of the US, South Korea usually no longer feels the strain from the capital market, which may be very difficult to discipline the strain of the capital market.
Furthermore, article 4 examines whether stock incentives for CEOs and CFOs are associated with a company-specific stock market crash risk. In his research, Kim, Li [93] used a sample of the U.S. firms from 1993 to 2009 which was processed using the method of variable measurement and empirical analysis. It was found that the incentive of having CEO options significantly and positively affects the risk of future accidents. There is a risk of positive connections between stimuli and CFO variant accidents. In addition, Kim, Li [93] found out that a company with an incentive and accident risk for CFO versions finds it more important to hide risks. This additional evidence suggests that a competitive product market prevents the management of bad news. Based on empirical analysis, future analysis studies should consider administrators’ options and stocks and various characteristics in modelling the relationship between management incentives and prices to drop.
The other two articles discuss the effects of earnings management but are more specific. Rahman and Ali [95] (authors of article 6) investigated the connection between earnings management and company governance characteristics, particularly the attributes of the board of administrators and audit committee by examining ninety-seven corporations listed on the board of Bursa Asia countries from 2002 to 2003. Meanwhile, Park and Shin [98] (authors of article 9) conducted the same investigation but differed in terms of disclosure location, namely they examined Canadian companies. The results obtained from these two articles are slightly different. The authors of article 6 found that there was no significant relationship between the board of directors and earnings management based on the tested corporate governance variables. The average Malaysian company has about eight directors. Regression analysis provides evidence that the size of the board is positively associated with revenue management, and smaller board are more focused on problem-solving. The authors of this study conclude that there is a possibility. On the other hand, huge boards are difficult to control. This can lead to potential conflicts of interest within the board of directors, interfering with overseeing management activities. Meanwhile, the authors of number 9 also found no relationship between directors in assisting the board in monitoring earnings management. However, Park and Shin [98] found evidence that intermediary financial officers on the board withhold peculiar accruals whilst unmanaged income is lower than the target. It was also found that the tenure of outside directors did not reduce earnings management. Subsequent research predicted by the authors of article 6, Rahman and Ali [95], suggests research that examines in depth the extent to which DAC is harmful or beneficial to shareholders. This future research is expected to produce more accurate results by differentiating and focusing only on DAC for shareholders. The authors of article 9, Park and Shin (2004), argue that companies with high growth opportunities need to invest more to predict future earnings growth. That can lead to a positive relationship between growth opportunities and extraordinary savings and the authors believed that fast-growing companies managed their profits more efficiently than slow-growing or stagnant companies. This is because fast-growing companies are usually challenging to be identified as engaging in business.
Article number 7, written by Jizi, Salama [96], investigates the impact of corporate governance, especially concerning the board’s role in the quality of CSR disclosure in the annual report of US-listed banks in the wake of the US subprime mortgage crisis. In general, there are two characteristics of the board that are related to shareholder protection: board independence and board size results are positively correlated with CSR disclosure. This shows that a more independent board of directors and a larger board of directors for CSR disclosure is an internal corporate governance structure that promotes the interests of both shareholders and other stakeholders. In addition, Jizi, Salama [96] showed that the duality of the CEO has a positive impact on the CSR disclosure of US banks. However, in this study, the authors do not provide evidence of changes to US commercial banks’ CSR disclosure between 2009 and 2011. Due to the limitations of this study, the authors further determines whether the competitiveness of the raw materials drives this positive relationship. Labor and markets, the capital of the relevant banking sector, have evolved, including CSR disclosure and corporate governance by US commercial banks.
Furthermore, article number 8, written by Chen, Chen [97], used two research datasets from Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia CLSA (2001, 2002) to investigate corporate governance’s impact on emerging markets, and CLSA was subjected to the regression analysis method to hypothesize. Corporate governance at the company level has been found to have a significant negative impact on the cost of capital in the market. In addition, the results of this corporate governance are more pronounced in countries with comparatively very little legal protection. In rising markets, corporate governance and domestic shareowner protection seem to work together to lower the price of capital. This study has some limitations. Chen, Chen [97] omission of correlation variables tends to be biased, and causality testing is limited, unlike in this study. These limitations can form the basis for a recommendation for further research.
The last article, number 10, is slightly different from other articles. Gereffi and Lee [44] explored how CSR relates to existing industrial clusters and GVCs, GVC actors and clusters, GVC typology and cluster governance-driven economics and societies in developing countries. The article is influencing the improvement and the types of governments in which the actors are involved. The results show that, to realize a more integrated CSR framework, it is necessary to improve the social economy, which is linked to the GVC and cluster models which show that that the improvement of the social economy can support each other. Furthermore, it is necessary to expand and integrate the GVC typology, which focuses on vertical and horizontal relationships to consider various actors related to private, public, and social forms of government. Then, the importance of synergistic governance is needed to encourage a more comprehensive and sustainable form of improvement, both economically and socially. This study has research limitations, such as not explaining alternative pathways to accelerate socio-economic improvement. Because of these limitations, Gereffi and Lee [44] stated that research projects that link clusters and the GVC paradigm are needed in the future to identify different paths that can accelerate social and economic improvement in developing countries.

4. Conclusions

4.1. Implications of the Study

In the last two decades, interest in corporate governance in Asian countries has been growing, as evidenced by the number of publications on this topic. A total of 656 articles on corporate governance in Asian countries were published in 10 different journals, with Corporate Ownership & Control being the most prominent. The Journal of Corporate Finance is the most cited in related research on corporate governance, with 3375 total citations. Furthermore, there are 1387 authors who have contributed to the literature on corporate governance with Lee J. being the most prolific author. In addition, this study sampled 30 of the 48 Asian countries and found that China is both the most productive and most influential country with 147 articles and 4108 citations. To popularize academic knowledge about corporate governance, this study also presents an in-depth content analysis of the top 10 most cited publication. Based on the result, studies related to corporate governance are divided into eight major themes: corporate governance, corporate social responsibility and financial performance, corporate strategy and performance, agency theory, corporate sustainability, audit and agency problems, firm size, and business ethics. Many of the ten most cited articles that have been described in this study explain the importance of governance in a company. These range from preventing financial fraud, the impact on earnings management, and the cost of equity capital in the market, to reporting methods and others. All of these things can impact the company’s performance and sustainability, which must be a concern.

4.2. Future Research Direction

This study has some shortcomings that should be acknowledged. First, the authors only used the Scopus database. Extracting valuable data from more than one database, for instance, adding article samples from the WoS database, could provide more information for bibliometric analyses. In addition, most of the research is still limited to the areas where it has been conducted, and so it cannot be generalized globally. Second, the basis of combinations and time of search queries in the bibliometric analysis may result in limitations caused by differences in the bibliometric samples of article. The sample this article was chosen only from articles published in Asian countries and comparison to research in other region or continent will be interesting to be discuss in future research. According to the finding, research related company’s performance and sustainability uniqueness in each Asian country are potentially to be explored further. Third, this study disregards the subject categories of Scopus used to filter the journals that may provide more details information and trend in this area of research. Finally, some publications in corporate governance area are published in the open access journal and potentially reach broader readers. Research of corporate governance theme in this type of publication comparing with non-open access journal is interesting to be discussed further.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, supervision, editing, I.F.S.W.; methodology, validation, A.C.; writing–original draft, software, visualization, N.G.H.; investigation, data curation, project administration, M.A.B.; supervision, review, H.N. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by SAPBN Universitas Diponegoro, Indonesia and Curtin University, Australia.

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

Not applicable.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the assistance from EnSi-RG members: Annisa Sila Puspita, Indah Sekar Arumdani, and Annisa Mayang Sari.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

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Figure 1. Research Design.
Figure 1. Research Design.
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Figure 2. Publication statistics over the years.
Figure 2. Publication statistics over the years.
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Figure 3. Corporate governance publication distribution in different journals.
Figure 3. Corporate governance publication distribution in different journals.
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Figure 4. Country collaboration network map from VOSviewer.
Figure 4. Country collaboration network map from VOSviewer.
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Figure 5. Timeline of dominant research topics in corporate governance.
Figure 5. Timeline of dominant research topics in corporate governance.
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Table
Table 1. Statistical details on publications 2012–2021.
Table 1. Statistical details on publications 2012–2021.
YearNo. of ArticlesNo. of Countries ContributingNo. of CitationsPopular Keywords
20122318539Corporate governance; audit committee; board structure; forward-looking information; director
20133021588Corporate governance; board of director; emerging markets; disclosure; economic development
20144528681Corporate governance; governance approach; corporate social responsibility; sustainability; corporate strategy
20155028531Corporate governance; governance approach; board of director; corporate strategy; firm performance
20165025381Corporate governance; governance approach; board of director; corporate social responsibility; sustainability
20173322186Corporate governance; governance approach; corporate social responsibility; corporate strategy; sustainability
20184029171Corporate governance; governance approach; corporate strategy; sustainability; corporate social responsibility
20195828164Corporate governance; corporate strategy; governance approach; Corporate social responsibility; innovation
20209324108Corporate governance; governance approach; sustainability; corporate strategy; firm size
20215924-Corporate governance; financial crisis; board of director; earnings management; firm performance
Table
Table 2. Journals with corporate governance research publications.
Table 2. Journals with corporate governance research publications.
No.Journal NameNo. of Articles%First Article PublishedCited byH-IndexSJR
1.Corporate Ownership & Control13019.82%200838221N/A
2.Corporate Governance (Bingley)13019.82%20051.879640.85 (Q1)
3.Sustainability (Switzerland)11918.14%20079131090.66 (Q1)
4.Corporate Governance: An International Review7912.04%20052.718911.18 (Q1)
5.Journal of Corporate Finance598.99%20013.3751092.1 (Q1)
6.Journal of Business Ethics467.01%20031.8792082.44 (Q1)
7.Managerial Auditing Journal406.10%20031.486610.45 (Q2)
8.Journal of Banking and Finance274.12%20051.0301721.47 (Q1)
9.Journal of Management & Governance162.44%2003183530.58 (Q2)
10.Journal of Financial Economics101.52%200120132710.42 (Q1)
Table
Table 3. Top 10 most prolific authors in corporate governance research.
Table 3. Top 10 most prolific authors in corporate governance research.
RankAuthorH-IndexNo. of Published ArticlesFirst Article PublishedMost Cited Article Title (Number of Citations)
1Lee J.782004Economic and Social Upgrading in Global Value Chains and Industrial Clusters: Why Governance Matters [44] (247)
2Chahine S.1872007Activity-based diversification, corporate governance, and the market valuation of commercial banks in the Gulf Commercial Council [46] (16)
3Safieddine A.1562007Corporate governance and women: An empirical study of top and middle women managers in the Lebanese banking sector [47] (38)
4Chung C. Y.1262017Shareholder litigation rights and corporate acquisitions [48] (6)
5Kang J.-K.3052002Corporate governance and firm value: Evidence from the South Korean financial crisis [49] (414)
6Kim J.252006Outside director, ownership structure and firm profitability in South Korea [50] (90)
7Agyei-Mensah B. K.752010Internal control information disclosure and corporate governance: evidence from an emerging market [51] (30)
8Chen Y.652013Board diversity and corporate risk: evidence from China [52] (19)
9Jiraporn P.2552014Exploring the Effect of Religious Piety on Corporate Governance: Evidence from Anti-takeover Defenses and Historical Religious Identification [53] (15)
10Firth M.4942001Ownership structure, corporate governance, and fraud: Evidence from China [45] (461)
Table
Table 4. Top 10 most prolific institutions in corporate governance research.
Table 4. Top 10 most prolific institutions in corporate governance research.
RankInstitutionsLocationNo. of ArticlesNo. of CitationsFirst Publication
1Olayan School of Business, American University of BeirutLebanon5592009
2.School of Accounting, Dongbei University of Finance and EconomicsChina4692013
3.Department of Finance and Accounting, Solbridge International School of BusinessSouth Korea4462012
4.School of Management, Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina4262015
5.College of Business Administration, Kookmin UniversitySouth Korea4142017
6.School of Business Administration, College of Business and Economics, Chung-Ang UniversitySouth Korea4142017
7.National Taiwan UniversityTaiwan31122007
8.Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management UniversitySingapore31102008
9.Department of Accounting, National Dong Hwa UniversityChina3682013
10.Bang College of Business, Kimep UniversityKazakhstan3662009
Table
Table 5. Top 10 most prolific countries in corporate governance research.
Table 5. Top 10 most prolific countries in corporate governance research.
RankCountryNo. of Article% Out of 656No. of CitationsFirst Publication
1China14722.41%41082001
2South Korea9214.02%31262001
3Malaysia7511.43%16602003
4Taiwan6910.52%14292006
5Hong Kong497.47%32512001
6India324.88%5612005
7Singapore304.57%8522005
8Lebanon304.57%6052003
9Pakistan274.12%3932007
10United Arab Emirates263.96%4702004
Table
Table 6. Mainly Topics on Corporate Governance.
Table 6. Mainly Topics on Corporate Governance.
Cluster No.Main ThemeArticlesKeywords
1Corporate Governance[8,56,57,58,59,60,61]Board characteristic, CEO turnover, compliance, corporate governance, corporate governance index, emerging market, executive compensation, family firm, firm performance, government ownership,
independent director institutional investor, investor protection, ownership concentration, ownership structure, privatization, state-owned enterprise, transparency, voluntary disclosure
2Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Performance[52,62,63,64,65,66,67,68]Board composition, board diversity, board gender diversity, board independence, board size, CEO duality, corporate social performance, corporate social responsibility, environmental economics, financial performance, firm value, numerical model, organizational performance, performance assessment, regression analysis, risk assessment
3Corporate Strategy and Performance[69,70,71,72,73]Banking, business development, capital market, corporate performance, corporate strategy, equity, ethic, industrial enterprise, industrial performance, industrial policy, investment, market condition, perception, research work
4Agency Theory[74,75,76,77,78] Agency theory, audit committee, board of director, CEO, corporate ownership, disclosure, earnings management, financial reporting, governance, initial public offering, intellectual capital, ownership, performance, shareholder
5Corporate Sustainability[71,79,80,81,82,83] Corporate sustainability, COVID-19, decision making, empirical analysis, financial system, governance approach, innovation, management practice, market system, stock market, strategic approach, sustainability, sustainable development
6Audit and Agency Problem [48,84,85,86,87] Agency problem, audit fee, audit quality, board structure, emerging economy, family ownership, financial crisis, incentive, internal audit, risk management
7Firm Size [88,89,90] Family control, firm size, panel data, policy making, spatiotemporal analysis, stakeholder
8Business Ethic[91]Business ethic
Table
Table 7. Content analysis of the 10 most influential articles.
Table 7. Content analysis of the 10 most influential articles.
NoReference/Citation/JournalAim of the Study
1Chen, Firth [45]/461/Journal of Corporate FinanceTo examine and obtain information on whether ownership structure and governance mechanisms (boardroom characteristics, ownership, and audit) influence company fraud in China.
2Joh [92]/453/Journal of Financial EconomicsTo find out if a company’s ownership structure has affected pre-crisis performance.
3Baek, Kang [49]/414/Journal of Financial EconomicsTo explore the importance of company governance measures in confirm the worth of the corporate throughout a crisis.
4Kim, Li [93]/379/Journal of Financial EconomicsTo investigate whether the equity preferences of the CEO and the CFO are related to the risk of a particular company’s stock market crash.
5Liu and Lu [94]/341/Journal of Corporate FinanceTo explore the correlation between profit management and corporate governance in listed companies in China by introducing the tunnel perspective.
6Rahman and Ali [95]/326/Managerial Auditing JournalTo investigate the relationship between revenue management and corporate governance characteristics, 97 board and audit committee characteristics on the main board of the Malaysian Stock Exchange from 2002 to 2003 were listed.
7Jizi, Salama [96]/313/Journal of Business EthicsTo study the impact of corporate governance, particularly regarding the role of the board of directors, on the quality of CSR disclosure in the annual reports of listed banks in the United States after the lending crisis. Subprime mortgages in the United States.
8Chen, Chen [97]/288/Journal of Corporate FinanceTo examine the impact of corporate-level governance on the cost of equity in emerging markets and how affected by legal protections from investors at the national level.
9Park and Shin [98]/272/Journal of Corporate FinanceTo examine the impact of board composition on the management of Canadian revenue practices.
10Gereffi and Lee [44]/247/Journal of Business EthicsTo understand how CSR relates to industry clusters and document GVCs by highlighting the following:
(i)
Economic and social improvement in developing countries is stricken by the interaction of GVC actors and clusters
(ii)
GVC classification and cluster governance.
(iii)
Type of government and actors involved.
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Wahyuningrum, I.F.S.; Chegenizadeh, A.; Humaira, N.G.; Budihardjo, M.A.; Nikraz, H. Corporate Governance Research in Asian Countries: A Bibliometric and Content Analysis (2001–2021). Sustainability 2023, 15, 6381. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15086381

AMA Style

Wahyuningrum IFS, Chegenizadeh A, Humaira NG, Budihardjo MA, Nikraz H. Corporate Governance Research in Asian Countries: A Bibliometric and Content Analysis (2001–2021). Sustainability. 2023; 15(8):6381. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15086381

Chicago/Turabian Style

Wahyuningrum, Indah Fajarini Sri, Amin Chegenizadeh, Natasya Ghinna Humaira, Mochamad Arief Budihardjo, and Hamid Nikraz. 2023. "Corporate Governance Research in Asian Countries: A Bibliometric and Content Analysis (2001–2021)" Sustainability 15, no. 8: 6381. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15086381

APA Style

Wahyuningrum, I. F. S., Chegenizadeh, A., Humaira, N. G., Budihardjo, M. A., & Nikraz, H. (2023). Corporate Governance Research in Asian Countries: A Bibliometric and Content Analysis (2001–2021). Sustainability, 15(8), 6381. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15086381

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