COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE PRINCIPLES IN THE CENTRAL AND EAST EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

Corporate governance has a crucial role for stakeholders and the functioning of financial markets. In the case of economies from Central and East Europe (CEE), the privatization and dereglementation processes as well as the European Union adherence have had strong influences on the environment where businesses run their activity. Within this framework, many CEE companies have started to implement the principles of corporate governance. The present paper aims to comparatively analyze the progress reported in the implementation of corporate governance principles in the CEE states, having as a starting point the most significant study conducted by World Bank. The results have shown that in this region the stage of the implementation of corporate governance differs significantly from one country to another. Thus, in the case of companies from Poland and Lithuania, the application of corporate governance principles reaches its highest level, while the companies from Czech Republic and Bosnia-Herzegovina register the weakest performances. At the same time, our study highlights that the progress made in the implementation of corporate governance is weak and concerted efforts of public authorities and market actors are needed. In this context, we have made certain proposals of public policy.