4. Executive Compensation and Corporate Governance Post COVID-19: The Nordic Perspective

COVID-19 outbreak has re-designed business activities and changed the priorities in our lives. Since the pandemic is a sign of overexploitation of our habitat, it has stressed the importance of sustainable and resilient businesses and ‘stakeholderism’. A recent survey conducted by Willis Towers Watson (WTW) revealed that 74 percent of the American companies proceed with their executive compensation frameworks widely consistent with last year’s; only 12 percent stated that they will make substantive changes in their corporate governance and remuneration structures. Surprisingly, the survey result does not alter too much in the Nordic countries which are egalitarian and stakeholder-oriented. Three-fifth (57 to 61 percent) of the employers in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland expressed that they are not planning to change the structure of the executive schemes and that one-fourth (24 to 26 percent) are still unsure. Therefore, this book chapter, as a commentary, aims to disclose and interpret the survey results from the Nordic countries perspective and guide the practitioners and academics on how the corporate governance systems and executive compensation schemes should be modified to reach fair, resilient, and sustainable businesses based on the key takeaways from the COVID recession and stakeholder theory.