The effect of corporate governance mechanisms on financial performance in the Arab contexts : a meta-analysis

Abstract EN

The thrust behind embarking on the present study is to investigate the effect of corporate governance mechanisms on financial performance, with a particular focus on board of directors’ characteristics; namely board size, board meetings, chief executive officer (CEO) duality and board independence, and return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) as proxies for financial performance.

Using a meta-analysis method, this study of 18 research papers, which were published between 2013 and 2017, is concerned about the listed and non listed companies in the Arab contexts.

The research’s findings showed positive significant effects of all independent variables included in this study on the financial performance indicators; thus, the results were in line with the main corporate governance theories, especially agency theory and resource dependence theory.

More specific, the results indicated that listed companies’ performances were more affected by board characteristics than non listed companies.