Research agenda

The research agenda of the chair consists of analyzing the legal and economic aspects of corporate governance, with a particular focus on corporations in continental Europe, as this region is often underexposed in current research. 

Research on short-termism in corporate governance

More specifically, the chair conducts research into short-termism in corporate governance. For example, the chair has received funding from the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) to conduct research into “short-termism in corporate governance: a continental European perspective”. This research will be conducted by PhD candidate Theo Monnens, under supervision of Dr. Tom Vos and prof. dr. Robby Houben. An overview of the research that will be conducted during this research project can be found here.

Summary of the research plan: “Short-termist behavior by corporations is considered a large societal problem. Many scholars have already argued that some investors are excessively focused on the short term, and that this short-termism is transmitted to corporate management through executive compensation and shareholder activists. However, most of the academic evidence has only studied the US and the UK, ignoring the specificities of corporate governance in continental Europe. Compared with the US and the UK, more corporations have a controlling shareholder in continental Europe, and shareholder activism and share-based executive compensation is rarer. So far, the academic evidence has not analyzed the implications of these differences in corporate governance. This has not stopped European jurisdictions from adopting measures to combat short-termism in corporate governance, for example by introducing loyalty voting rights. 

This research project analyzes the potential of corporate governance to discourage short-termism in two continental European jurisdictions, Belgium and France. It does so by reviewing the existing literature on short-termism in the US and the UK, comparing the US and the UK to Belgium and France, and providing new empirical evidence on Belgium and France. On the basis of this research, the proposals for corporate governance reform will be analyzed. This will help legislators and corporations take better informed decisions on combatting short-termism.”

Related to this line of research, Tom Vos and Theo Monnens have published several articles on the impact of controlling shareholders, multiple voting rights and remuneration on short-termism:

·        VOS, T. and MONNENS, T., “The missing role of controlling shareholders in the short-termism debate?”, European Business Organization Law Review (forthcoming), 46 p., available on SSRN.

·        VOS, T, and MONNENS, T., “Loyalty and multiple voting shares in listed companies in Belgium: current legal framework and policy proposals”, European Company Law 2025, 107-114, available on SSRN.

·        DECLERCQ, S., DELVOIE, J., MONNENS, T., and VOS, T., “Loyalty Voting Rights in Belgium: Nothing More than a Control- Enhancing Mechanism?”, European Company and Financial Law Review 2023, 27-57, available on SSRN.

·        MONNENS, T., and VOS, T., “De langetermijnincentives in de remuneratie van CEO’s op de Brusselse beurs. Empirisch en rechtseconomisch onderzoek”, TRV-RPS 2024, 667-689.