Rethinking ESG in a regulatory, developmental and predatory state: SOEs and common law Asia

This chapter contributes to the ESG literature by drawing on the framework of the regulatory state, the developmental state and the predatory state in the management and political science literature to understand the problems and prospects related to promoting ESG in three distinct corporate law and governance domains—CSR board committee, female directors, and liability of parent companies—in the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) of four leading common law Asian jurisdictions (India, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong). A key takeaway of this chapter is that the SOEs in each of these four jurisdictions exhibit varying degrees of the regulatory, developmental and predatory nature of the state in different circumstances and at different points in time, and these features can positively or negatively affect how the three corporate governance regimes can be used to promote ESG.