Corporate governance and firm efficiency: The role of board composition

Abstract

This paper investigates the role of a different composition of board of directors on firm’s performance. The study is based on the analysis of 149 Italian listed firms over the 2011-2017 period. Our regression results show that size board, gender diversity, independent directors and CEO gender have a significant effect on firm’s performance. This analysis uses as measure of firm’s performance two accounting-based measures ROE and ROA and one market-based measure TobinQ. The study shows that gender diversity, independent directors and CEO gender are associated positively respectively with ROE, ROA and TobinQ, while size board is negatively associated with ROE and TobinQ.