"Bruce Aronson and Joongi Kim Corporate governance endures as an important and popular field of study, but one which is also complicated by multiple definitions, an uncertain relationship with economic growth and development, and the difficulties in formulating a consistent approach that goes beyond current perceptions but is grounded in the real world. This Book takes a comparative approach to corporate governance to analyse the leading markets in Asia. It pays heed to the challenge of applying largely Western-based general theory to a variety of dynamic jurisdictions in Asia that differ materially from the countries from which such theory originated. At the same time, it seeks to examine actual practice from local Asian contexts to provide a deeper understanding of corporate governance issues from a comparative perspective. I. Basic Issues in Corporate Governance 1. What is Corporate Governance? Two definitions: "...means of decision-making and power allocation among shareholders, senior managers, and boards of directors..." Mark Roe, 'Comparative Corporate Governance', in Paul Newman (ed.), The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics and the Law (London: MacMillan, 1998), vol. 1, p. 339. "[M]ore broadly defined, corporate governance can encompass the combination of laws, regulations, listing rules and voluntary private sector practices that enable the corporation to: attract capital, perform efficiently, achieve the corporate objective, [and] meet both legal obligations and general societal expectations." Holly Gregory, 'The Globalization of Corporate Governance' (Sep. 2000) 5 Global Counsel 52-65, at 55"--