Corporate Governance Practices in Russia: 2004–2009 Comparative Study

Abstract

This article is based on the data provided by the Russian Institute of Directors (RID), which documents corporate governance practices in Russia. The experts from RID and New Economic School (Russia) have analyzed the dynamics of change in quality of corporate governance from 2004 till 2009. The tendencies of development of corporate governance in Russia were revealed and the influence of such factors as industry, ownership structure and size of the company was estimated.

The results show that the tendency of improvement of the general level of corporate governance, had been observed from 2004 till 2008, continued in 2009. However, dynamics of positive changes was not uniform for various components of corporate governance and for various groups of companies. At the same time it is worth inconsistency of positive changes in corporate governance practices. The research has also shown that state-owned companies are not the leaders in the field of corporate governance development now. Factor analysis shows that the factors of company’s size and of its industry play key role in corporate governance quality.