Corporate Governance: Theoretical Background and Implications for the Analysis of Corporate Governance in Norway

The term corporate governance relates to how corporations, firms, organizations etc. are owned, managed and controlled. This is an issue which has been the subject of much debate in recent years.1 The general reason for this, of course, is that how firms are managed matters a good deal for their economic performance. However, to understand the reasons for the recent upsurge in the interest for these issues and the particular focus that the debates typically have had, one must look more closely at the particular background for these debates. In this paper we will try to give an overview of these background issues, trying to explain how different definitions of what corporate governance is about reflect different perspectives on how to understand economic activity and economic performance. A central aim of the paper is to give a theoretical background for empirically oriented research on corporate governance in Norway. After having outlined the theorietical issues we thus conclude the paper by indicating some implications for empirical research.