This paper examines the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) approach to market definition in light of bank mergers within the country of Australia. It considers whether or not the ACCC’s approach is consistent with the actual bank selection criteria of a nationwide sample of 2,500 business firms. Empirical evidence reveals that a regulatory approach of defining bank markets based on distinct products may only be serving the interest of large business firms. The interest of small business firms may be better served under the more traditional approach of defining bank markets based on product clusters.

This paper examines the relationshipamong company performance, corporategovernance arrangements, and CEO compensationwithin the Scandinavian countries of Norway andSweden. Our sample consists of 224 tradedcompanies, 120 of which are from Norway and 104from Sweden. The empirical evidence fromboth Norway and Sweden reveals significantpositive relationships among board size andCEO compensation, foreign board membership andCEO compensation, and market capitalization andCEO compensation. A significant negativerelationship is found between CEO ownership andCEO compensation. In addition, no significantrelationship is found between companyperformance and CEO compensation or CEO tenureand CEO compensation, except in the case ofNorwegian firms when a change in market-to-bookperformance measure is used. Despite itslimited geographical scope, the study adds toour general understanding of internationalcorporate governance issues.