The effects of corporate governance on firm performance : evidence from Finnish listed companies
Zaz, Hafssa (2022-06-16)
Zaz, Hafssa
H. Zaz
16.06.2022
© 2022 Hafssa Zaz. Ellei toisin mainita, uudelleenkäyttö on sallittu Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0) -lisenssillä (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Uudelleenkäyttö on sallittua edellyttäen, että lähde mainitaan asianmukaisesti ja mahdolliset muutokset merkitään. Sellaisten osien käyttö tai jäljentäminen, jotka eivät ole tekijän tai tekijöiden omaisuutta, saattaa edellyttää lupaa suoraan asianomaisilta oikeudenhaltijoilta.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-202206162942
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-202206162942
Tiivistelmä
Nowadays, the focus on corporate governance has been renewed due to the increase in the number of international scandals and other corporate malpractices. This research investigates the relationship between corporate governance attributes and firm performance of Finnish listed companies from 2010 to 2020. In addition, the corporate governance attributes are mainly related to the board of directors, and this is because it takes a major part in the corporate governance system.
The sample used in this study includes 62 Finnish listed companies which mean 682 observations. These listed firms were collected from the Helsinki Stock Exchange. The data analysis started by reporting the results of the descriptive statistics, followed by revealing the correlation between the research variables, then the regression results, and finally the sensitivity test analysis. The independent variables include board size, board diversity, CEO duality and board meetings, while the dependent variables include return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE). Moreover, some control variables were added to the original model, such as firm size, leverage, liquidity and asset growth, whereas the industry and annual dummy variables were added to examine the sensitivity of the data.
The regression results suggest that both the board diversity and CEO duality have a positive impact on the performance, using ROA and ROE, of Finnish listed companies. These findings are consistent with prior research. However, there are no significant results for both board size and board meetings. In other words, board size and board meetings do not affect the firm performance of Finnish listed companies.
This paper has both academic and practical contributions. For instance, it could serve as an updated version of investigating the impact of corporate governance mechanisms, board structure in particular, on the performance of Finnish listed companies since there is a lack of new academic papers addressing a similar topic in Finland. In addition, the findings of this study could be implemented by policymakers, regulators and management departments to understand better the factors affecting firm performance and thus, help them make better decisions regarding corporate governance. Finally, the results could be beneficial to other countries with similar environments, such as Nordic countries.
The sample used in this study includes 62 Finnish listed companies which mean 682 observations. These listed firms were collected from the Helsinki Stock Exchange. The data analysis started by reporting the results of the descriptive statistics, followed by revealing the correlation between the research variables, then the regression results, and finally the sensitivity test analysis. The independent variables include board size, board diversity, CEO duality and board meetings, while the dependent variables include return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE). Moreover, some control variables were added to the original model, such as firm size, leverage, liquidity and asset growth, whereas the industry and annual dummy variables were added to examine the sensitivity of the data.
The regression results suggest that both the board diversity and CEO duality have a positive impact on the performance, using ROA and ROE, of Finnish listed companies. These findings are consistent with prior research. However, there are no significant results for both board size and board meetings. In other words, board size and board meetings do not affect the firm performance of Finnish listed companies.
This paper has both academic and practical contributions. For instance, it could serve as an updated version of investigating the impact of corporate governance mechanisms, board structure in particular, on the performance of Finnish listed companies since there is a lack of new academic papers addressing a similar topic in Finland. In addition, the findings of this study could be implemented by policymakers, regulators and management departments to understand better the factors affecting firm performance and thus, help them make better decisions regarding corporate governance. Finally, the results could be beneficial to other countries with similar environments, such as Nordic countries.
Kokoelmat
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