U.S. Companies Take Lead on Corporate Governance

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NEW YORK, N.Y. -- U.S. companies have taken top honors in a global comparison of corporate governance standards, surpassing the U.K. and Canada.

The study, of more than 2,500 international companies, found that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other reforms have improved the relative performance of large U.S. companies.

Researchers from GovernanceMetrics International compared as many as 500 publicly disclosed measures for each company, including factors reflecting performance on boardroom accountability, financial disclosure, strength of national regulatory controls, and corporate environmental behavior.

Twenty of the study’s top 26 companies are from the U.S., including 3M, Coca-Cola, Eastman Kodak, General Motors, Gillette, Dow Chemical, and Target.

Companies from Canada, Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. have historically faired best in the twice-yearly study. The 356 Japanese companies examined performed worst, scoring half as well as U.S. companies, in part because of poorer financial disclosure.

The study confirms a link between share price performance and adherence to corporate governance principles. GMI said the shares of the top 26 companies in the survey outperformed the S&P 500 by 10% over five years.

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