Oct. 17, 2016

The Darla Moore School of Business has an exceptionally valued academic relationship with the Graduate School of Commerce and Management at Hitotsubashi University, located in Tokyo. For the past two years, students from both Hitotsubashi and USC have participated in the exchange program between the two universities to study at each location in order to gain a globalized perspective on business and develop a deeper understanding of the business context in each location.

This summer, Omrane Guedhami, an international business professor at the Moore School, worked with faculty from Hitotsubashi University to design and organize the two schools’ first collaborative conference on corporate governance. This was the first of what he hopes will be many conferences given the importance of the topic in business today.

“We would like to hold this conference in future years to continue to gather new perspectives on corporate governance,” Guedhami said.

Around 50 participants, including distinguished scholars from the United States, Canada, Singapore and Japan, were in attendance to discuss questions related to institutional investors, cross-listing, stakeholders, and business groups and how the varying national cultures influence corporate governance.

Over the course of the day-long conference, seven carefully selected papers were presented on corporate governance aspects such as the effect of institutional investors’ geographic concentration and long-term investment horizons on corporate behavior, the impact of U.S. cross-listing on corporate social responsibility and internal corporate governance and, in the concluding paper presented by Guedhami, the importance of national culture for corporate governance practices and corporate performance.

According to Guedhami, the conference was very successful and served to strengthen the relationship between the Moore School and Hitotsubashi University.  This year, seven Ph.D. students were able to contribute to the conversation. Guedhami hopes more will go in the future to increase student awareness of the many facets of corporate governance.

“I think it was a good opportunity for the students to meet these distinguished scholars,” he said.

By the end of the conference, the conference organizers had decided to hold this conference every other year to continue to share perspectives on corporate governance.

By Madeleine Vath