Corporate governance code comparison for South Asian emerging economies

Purpose The purpose of this study is to compare the corporate governance (CG) codes of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh with the CG guide of United Nations (UN) and to identify the similar points of these codes with the requirements of Combined Code (CC) that are not included in the CG guide of UN. Design/methodology/approach This study is based on the qualitative data, while content analysis is used for the analysis. For this exploratory research, different documents have been reviewed and consulted and qualitative data are collected from those. A multiple case study approach is adopted because the codes of three countries (four CG codes used for the analysis) have been reviewed. Findings This study has presented that the Pakistani and Bangladeshi (issued by Bangladesh Enterprise Institute) CG code has approximately 77 per cent convergence (40 out of 52), Indian CG code has 50 per cent convergence (26 out of 52), whereas the Bangladeshi (issued by Bangladesh Security and Exchange Commission) CG code has approximately 41 per cent convergence (21 out of 52) to CG guide of UN. Seven similar points to CC have been found out in all four or few of the codes that were used in this study. Originality/value This study has explored the convergence of CG codes of Pakistan, Bangladesh and India with the CG guide of UN. Furthermore, this study has highlighting the similar mechanisms presented in CC and the codes of selected countries so international investors get clear information about the quality of these codes and take informed investment decision.