scholarly journals Exploring the Role of Board Characteristics on Enhancing Financial Performance of Jordanian Listed Companies

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 99
Author(s):  
Laith A Alaryan

Corporate governance considered important topic at the local and international levels, especially after many financial crises and corporate failures and such as Enron and World Com This paper aims to explore the role of board characteristics, (i.e. board size, board composition and board leadership structure) on enhancing firms’ financial performance; this study used the non-financial companies’ annual reports for 6 years (2011-2016) to extract the needed information. The non- financial sector consisted form 167 companies, only 139 companies are included in this study due the lack of data during study’s period. The results revealed that there is a positive role for board composition, board leadership structure, board size, on enhancing financial performance, while there is no significant role for board tenure, on financial performance. These mixed results on the relationship between board characteristics and financial performance have opened up possible research area in the future. For instance, extending the sample to comprise more sectors from Amman Stock Exchange is worthwhile to further support or refute the results of this study.

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chinedu Francis Egbunike ◽  
Augustine N. Odum

Purpose One main concern and issue affecting earnings quality is the extent to which managers manipulate earnings to mislead stakeholders about the underlying economic performance of the company or to influence contractual outcomes that depend on reported accounting numbers. This study builds on prior research and examines empirically the relationship between board leadership structure and earnings quality of manufacturing firms in Nigeria. The purpose of this paper is to specifically focus on four board structure characteristics: board size, composition, proportion of non-executive directors and CEO duality. Design/methodology/approach Data used for this investigation were collected from secondary sources, i.e. annual reports and accounts. The study used the Pooled OLS regression model to examine the effect of the board structure on earnings management for a sample of 45 non-financial listed Nigerian companies (conglomerates, consumer goods and industrial goods firms) for the years 2011 to 2016. Findings Based on the analysis, board size and board composition were positive and significant. However, proportion of non-executive directors was negative and significant; while, CEO duality was positive and statistically significant. It was consequently recommended that audit firms should review their audit business model and become more circumspect of their client, e.g. provide fraud assessment and checks for earnings quality. Boards should not just reflect size but rather the skills and expertise of individuals appointed to the board. Furtherance to this, the effectiveness of boards can be improved by committees and sub-committees allocation of duties. Originality/value Few studies have addressed this area in the country.


Author(s):  
Danuse Bement ◽  
Ryan Krause

Boards of directors are governing bodies that reside at the apex of the modern corporation. Boards monitor the behavior of firm management, provide managers access to knowledge, expertise, and external networks, and serve as advisors and sounding boards for the CEO. Board attributes such as board size and independence, director demographics, and firm ownership have all been studied as antecedents of effective board functioning and, ultimately, firm performance. Steady progress has been made toward understanding how boards influence firm outcomes, but several key questions about board leadership structure remain unresolved. Research on board leadership structure encompasses the study of board chairs, lead independent directors, and board committees. Board chair research indicates that when held by competent individuals, this key leadership position has the potential to contribute to efficient board functioning and firm performance. Researchers have found conflicting evidence regarding CEO duality, the practice of the CEO also serving as the board chair. The effect of this phenomenon—once ubiquitous among U.S. boards—ranges widely based on circumstances such as board independence, CEO power, and/or environmental conditions. Progressively, however, potential negative consequences of CEO duality proposed by agency theory appear to be counterbalanced by other governance mechanisms and regulatory changes. A popular mechanism for a compromise between the benefits of CEO duality and independent monitoring is to establish the role of a lead independent director. Although research on this role is in its early stage, results suggest that when implemented properly, the lead independent director can aid board monitoring without adding confusion to a unified chain of command. Board oversight committees, another key board leadership mechanism, improve directors’ access to information, enhance decision-making quality by allowing directors to focus on specialized topics outside of board meetings, and increase the speed of response to critical matters. Future research on the governance roles of boards, leadership configurations, and board committees is likely to explore theories beyond agency and resource dependence, as well as rely less on collecting archival data and more on finding creative ways to access rarely examined board interactions, such as board and committee meetings and executive sessions.


Author(s):  
Mohammad Ahid Ghabayen

ABSTRACTCorporate governance (CG) has received much attention in the current studies all over the world especially after many corporate scandals and the failures of some biggest firms around the world such as Commerce Bank (1991) Enron (2001), Adelphia (2002), and World Com (2002).The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between board mechanisms (audit committee size, audit committee composition, board size, and board composition) and firm performance (ROA) based on the annual reports of listed companies in the year 2011 of  sample of non-financial firms in the Saudi Market (Tadawul). For the purpose of this study, data was collected from a sample of 102 non-financial listed companies.Furthermore, an analysis of regression analysis is utilized to examine the relationship between board characteristics and firm performance. The results of this study reveal that audit committee size, audit committee composition and board size have no effect on firm performance in the selected sample while board composition has a significant negative relationship with firm performance.


Author(s):  
Alawiyya Ilu ◽  
◽  
Yunusa Ibrahim ◽  
Binta Nuhu ◽  
◽  
...  

The study analyses the moderating effect of financial performance on the relationship between board characteristics and dividend policy of listed non-financial firms in Nigeria. Board characteristics is proxied by board composition, board size, and board diversity, while dividend policy is proxied by dividend pay-out ratio. The positivist research paradigm and correlational research design were used. Relevant data for the study were collected from 39 sampled non-financial firms actively trading on the floor of the Nigerian stock exchange (NSE) from 2008 to 2017; the data collected were analysed using the panel corrected standard error (PCSE) regression analysis. The findings reveal that board composition and board diversity have positive but insignificant effect on dividend pay-out ratio of non-financial firms before moderation, While, board size has positive and significant effect on dividend policy of listed non-financial firms before moderation. The study also found that financial performance moderate the relationship between board characteristics and dividend pay-out ratio of listed non-financial firms. Based on the findings, the study concludes that board composition and board size are related with high dividend payment. Among the important policy implications is that the variable of board size used suggest that there is the need by SEC to monitor the available cash at the discretion of managers since financial performance can moderate the relationship between board size and dividend pay-out ratio in order to mitigate agency conflict between management and shareholders of listed non-financial firms which is in-line with the practical problem of the study. It is therefore recommended amongst others that the government through the regulators should provide an enabling environment for non-financial firms to make a profit and pay more dividends to their shareholders since the interaction effect of financial performance makes the variables of the study to be more active in influencing the dividend pay-out ratio of non-financial firms in Nigeria.


2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hayam Wahba

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the joint effect of board characteristics on financial performance. Most of the existing literature implicitly assumes that the relationship between either board composition, or board leadership structure and financial performance is direct. Design/methodology/approach – The generalized least squares method was performed as a panel data analysis on a sample of 40 Egyptian listed firms during the period from 2008 to 2010. Findings – The results demonstrated that under board leadership structure that assigns the duties of the CEO and chairman to the same person, increasing the proportion of non-executive members to the total number of directors has a negative impact on firm financial performance. Practical implications – First, corporate governance structures do not operate in a vacuum, and therefore, corporate governance mechanisms must be considered and assessed altogether. Second, failure to understand the underlying interdependency among corporate governance mechanisms may result in arguments that blame some corporate governance designs for poor financial performance. Third, there is no single board governance mechanism that can be considered ideal, but there are combinations of these mechanisms that are preferred. Originality/value – The paper adds to the corporate governance literature by providing empirical evidence from the emerging market of Egypt. The evidence shows that the relationship between board characteristics and financial performance is not a monotonic relationship. Consequently, these findings imply that existing evidence explaining the relationship between board characteristics and financial performance needs to be interpreted with some caution.


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