Kapitalmarktorientierte Rechnungslegung in Deutschland zwischen Anspruch und Realität — Theorie und Empirie

Corporate governance, capital market orientation and firm performance: empirical evidence for large publicly traded German corporations

“…Prior empirical evidence for large publicly traded German corporations as well as for innovative medium-sized firms listed in the GEX shows that the behavior at firm-level is de facto-at its best-only slightly changing in the predetermined direction. First, the financing patterns still seem to be bank-oriented or 'hybrid' with firms only reluctantly using additional capital market-related mechanisms (Gerum et al 2011;Gerum and Mo ¨lls 2013). Second, the German capital market, with respect to equity and debt financing, is still only of humble importance compared to other industrialized countries (Deutsches Aktieninstitut 2014).…”

“…Based on this organizational structure capital markets traditionally only play a minor role for corporate financing as external funding is typically organized by long-term debt granted by house banks (Hackethal and Schmidt 2000;Gerum et al 2011;Deutsches Aktieninstitut 2014). The marginal capital market-affinity of firms creates a relatively small capital market which induces a not very intensive market for corporate control, making the external monitoring of the behavior of managers difficult.…”

“…The adoption of such a capital market-based legal framework, however, does not necessarily imply that the de facto behavior of firms is changing in a predetermined direction due to path-dependencies (Bebchuk and Roe 2004). In fact, empirical evidence (Gerum et al 2011) shows that even among the 100 largest publicly traded German corporations with respect to revenues as well as in capital market-oriented German medium-sized firms listed in the GEX (German Entrepreneurial Index), bank-related 'hybrid' financing patterns (with only a reluctant use of other capital market-related mechanisms such as disclosed ratings (Mo ¨lls and Shen 2014), listings abroad and issued bonds) still seem to prevail. The same is true for the existence of firm codes and compliance officers as well as detailed ecological and social reporting (Gerum and Mo ¨lls 2013).…”

“…In spite of a strong preference for bank loans as the primary source of financing and corresponding stakeholder-oriented internal corporate governance structures, the recent regulatory activities of the German legislature in particular aim to facilitate the use of capital markets for equity and debt financing, by introducing more transparent (capital market-oriented) disclosure and auditing rules as well as corporate governance codes and accompanying securities laws (Du Plessis et al 2012). Empirical evidence (Gerum et al 2011;Gerum and Mo ¨lls 2013), however, shows that bank-based or a 'hybrid' combination of bank-based and capital marketoriented financing patterns still seem to prevail, with only a reluctant use of other capital market-related mechanisms.…”