Kurumsal Yönetimin Afrika'da Firmaların Finansal Performansına Etkisi: Ortak Hukuk (Common Law) Ülkelerinin Perspektifi

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to examine the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on the financial performance of listed firms in Africa. Special emphasis was given to common law countries in Africa. This study used secondary data to analyze the relationship between corporate governance mechanisms and financial performance of 156 firms from 13 countries which include: Botswana Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, for the period of 7 years from 2013 to 2019, making a firm-year observation of 84 firms per country and total of 1,092 firm-year observations. The independent variables used in this study are the comprehensive corporate governance index (CGI) and its four (4) sub-indexes namely; Board of Directors Sub-index, Board Committees Sub-index, Shareholders Right Sub-index, and Disclosure Sub-index. The CGI contains a total of 50 statements representing both the OECD Corporate Governance Principles and the most significant recommendations of the common law countries‟ code of best practice. The dependent variables that were employed in this study are Return on Assets (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE). To control for omitted bias, Leverage, Firm Size, Capital-intensity Ratio, Firm‟s Age, and Secondary Listing were used as control variables. The Panel regression analyses were used to analyze the data. Furthermore, to control for endogeneity, the dynamic GMM was used for the robustness check of the results. The results show that there is a significant positive relationship between corporate governance and financial performance of firms in Africa. Board composition and functions, board committee composition and independence, protection of shareholders' rights, and disclosure of relevant financial and non-financial information are also positive and significantly related to corporate financial performance in Africa. The study also finds that transparent disclosure of relevant information by firms in Africa has the highest positive effect on financial performance of firms compared to other corporate governance mechanisms.