Importance of Corporate Governance in Socially Responsible Behaviour of Enterprises

Many organisations have already realised that if they want to be successful, they must have a sense of responsibility not only for their business activities, but also for the whole society. That approach is entirely consistent with the basic idea of the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR). In the economic area of the CSR concept, corporate governance plays an important role. Based on the OECD definition, corporate governance (CG) is a system by which business corporations are directed and controlled. The chapter provides the first comprehensive survey of corporate governance, the way to estimate the level of CG to individual companies on the Slovak capital market through our own corporate governance index. In analytical part of this chapter, we investigate disclosure of corporate governance in selected enterprises in Slovakia for the period 2011?2015 and on the basis of this information we prepare a corporate governance index. The corporate governance index helps assess the level of compliance with CG principles in companies whose securities are listed on the Bratislava Stock Exchange. The chapter fulfils a need for advancing knowledge on corporate governance and provides a practical framework for responsible behaviour of shareholders and managers in socially responsible enterprises.