The parity check and identification of KDOI provided a set of data against which the analysis of the jurisdictions studied was undertaken.
Without in any way limiting the scope of the analysis, three themes of the analysis were:
to identify what already works well or is well developed in Hong Kong's CG system;
to identify shortcomings in Hong Kong's CG system, particularly in light of developments implemented in the jurisdictions studied;
to consider experiences, innovations and specific provisions in the jurisdictions studied in the Hong Kong context.
The purpose of the analysis is to build toward identifying and supporting recommendations for changes in Hong Kong's CG system. In that undertaking it was also necessary to consider the wider context of each jurisdiction studied, meaning not just its legal and regulatory system but also the other characteristics of a market. This includes not only matters relating to the legal system but also political, historical, cultural and social factors that may vary considerably from one jurisdiction to another in ways that fundamentally interact with the likelihood of successful CG reform and the manner in which it might be implementable.
While CG standard setting is increasingly subject to a global approach, different markets having different characteristics means that a reform in one jurisdiction may not be suitable in another for a variety of reasons - simple transpositions frequently ignore the realities of those differences and may fail to be effective for that reason. As discussed further in Section 3.1.7 «Effectiveness», the implementation of and compliance with new CG-oriented rules does not always equate to better CG in practice - a box-ticking approach to compliance being one prevalent example of this that presents a validation problem.
In undertaking the analysis it was also recognized that an important aspect of considering changes to the CG system is that governance is in effect a social science practice in which behaviours can be affected by psychosocial factors spanning matters such as knowledge, conformity, and the acceptance of new expectations and standards. In other words, CG behaviour should not be understood as one that is merely reactive to the imposition of legal and regulatory requirements - it is capable of being driven in new directions by other factors.
The analysis is set out in Section 3.