The influence of corporate governance on corporate performance: evidence from Palestine

Abstract

The objective of this study is to explore the relationship between corporate performance and corporate governance by companies listed on the Palestinian Stock Exchange. Accounting and market performance measures were used to proxy corporate performance. Corporate governance represented by the board of directors’ size, the frequency of the annual meetings of the board, existence or otherwise of an audit committee, institutional investors ownership and foreign ownership. To achieve the objective of the study, all non-financial companies listed on the exchange and published their annual reports during the period between 2010 and 2012 were used. The result of the analysis revealed that corporate performance is negatively associated with corporate governance. This implies that the result is inconsistent with agency theory. This might be due to the fact that corporate governance in Palestine is still at its infancy stage.