Places and spaces: Control or experimentation in corporate governance?

Abstract

For a quarter of a century, corporate governance in many countries has been viewed as a process of institutionalising codes of good conduct. Episodic shocks, induced by spectacular corporate failures, have created opportunities for more radical change, but such codes have proved resilient. But has this been process firmed up a thickening core? With each revision, the corporate governance community has come to live in a field increasing dominated by the ideas traditional actors – corporate management and mainstream institutional investors – who colonized the ill-defined territory of corporate governance at the outset. Over time, however, the changing investment landscape has undercut some of the principles on which this domination was based. Let us explore the philosophical underpinnings basis of the code, drawing on concepts from the writings of de Certeau (1984) and Turner (1977), to reflect on places, spaces, rituals, and explorations, to understand what creates and constitutes control and resilience, and what it says about the possibilities for innovation and experimentation.