A study on corporate governance – A case study of E.SUN financial holdings

公司治理─以玉山金控為例Since the early 1970’s, the concept of corporate governance has been frequently discussed in order to deal with any lack of an efficient board, i.e. one that perform poorly. After almost three decades, more and more scandals and corruptions have emerged in Asia and caused severe Asian financial crises. Suddenly, companies started to realize the importance of corporate governance and how it affects financial performance. Attention to this was particularly arising after the troubles of Enron and Arthur & Anderson in US. Furthermore, many international research organizations have indicated that poor corporate governance has been one of the main causes for Asian financial crises. Although Taiwan’s economy is extremely stable comparing with South Korea or Thailand during the Asian financial crises, it is very important for Taiwan’s companies to understand that only through a better corporate governance system; their companies can gain more competitiveness against overseas competitors. Now, Taiwan’s securities regulator has tried to make public companies more transparent in order to protect investor’s rights. For newly listed companies, now it is required to have at least two independent board members and one independent supervisor on the board and financial data must be disclosed at certain times. Over the past few years, the financial sector of Taiwan have been weakening due to increasingly heavy competition and relatively high cost ratios compared with other markets. As Taiwan has become a full member of WTO, its financial market is now more accessible to foreign competitors. It is expected that as competition intensifies, companies need to find a new approach to enhance their competitive advantage and good corporate governance seems to offer such an opportunity. This thesis uses E.SUN Financial Holdings to illustrate the how implementation of an effective corporate governance system can enhance a company’s competitive advantage and improve its financial performance