M-VB-2 Corporate Governance & Compliance

Learning Outcomes:

After successful completion of the module, students will be able

  • to describe the topic of corporate governance and apply it as a regulatory framework for the governance and supervision of companies, which significantly influences the decision-making processes in the company,
  • to identify the fundamental conflicts between economic and ethical actions at both the individual and corporate decision-making levels,
  • to explain different models and stakeholders of corporate governance and to correctly assess their dependence on social, regulatory and cultural conditions,
  • to distinguish the complex coherences in today’s issues of the actions of companies in the areas of corporate values, compliance and risk, sustainability, diversity and social responsibility,
  • to identify current problems in the actions of companies in view of corporate governance-related concepts and to analyze them in a solution-oriented manner, and
  • to develop potential solutions for concrete examples based on the discussed theoretical constructs and approaches, and to present and evaluate them in an argumentative manner.

Course contents:

1. Development of corporate governance

  • Historical development
  • Overview of content

2. Theories of corporate governance

  • Agency Theory
  • Transaction Cost Theory
  • Stewardship Theory
  • Resource Dependancy Theory

3. Regulatory models for corporate governance

  • US model
  • UK model
  • Japanese model
  • German model (DCGK)

4. Corporate governance protagonists and partners

  • Investors
  • Company
  • Directors
  • Employees

5. Corporate Risk Management

  • Legal requirements
  • Risk policy and risk principles
  • Risk identification, analysis and assessment
  • Risk management strategies and methods
  • Risk reporting

6. Corporate compliance and corporate values

  • Requirements and contents
  • Codification, monitoring and sanctioning
  • Organizational integration

7. Corporate Social Responsibilty

  • Sustainability Management
  • Diversity & Gender Management
  • Stakeholder engagement
  • Reporting