The Nordic approach to corporate governance and ESG

Focusing on Denmark as an example of a Nordic country, the chapter argues that the Nordic corporate governance system has been entirely and consistently shareholder oriented, which is not irreconcilable with observing considerations related to stakeholders, ESG, and the environment. On the contrary, it is probably this feature that has made Nordic companies so efficient that many are world leaders within their industry, and so profitable that the Nordic countries have been able to finance their envious way of life and high environmental standing. In this contribution, the emphasis is on the G and less on the E and S that make up ESG because when analysing the decision-making of a company, governance (G) is arguably more important than decisions on how to deal with environmental (E) and social (S) matters, because governance is about the fundamental question of who makes those decisions.