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The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between corporate governance and firm performance of listed Ghanaian companies.

The paper adopts a longitudinal and cross-sectional data set of 20 sampled companies over a period of five years. The data were analyzed using a panel regression and ANOVA analysis to establish the relationship between corporate governance and firm performance. Corporate governance is defined in terms of three indices – board structure, ownership structure and corporate control, while firm performance is measured by return on assets, return on equity, net profit margin and Tobin’s Q.

The empirical results show that ownership concentration and female representation on board have a positive impact on performance. Although the results revealed no evidence to support the impact of board size and audit committee size on performance, there is significant evidence to support the fact that independent directors and audit committee frequency both adversely affect firm performance.

The scope of this paper can be expanded to include non-listed firms. In addition, other corporate governance mechanisms could be considered to broaden the scope of the paper.

This paper contributes to the scarce literature on corporate governance and firm performance in developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. The paper provides useful information that is of great value to policymakers, academics and other stakeholders.

The purpose of this study is to propose a framework for conceptualizing the finance-growth theory in developing economies.

The study uses a cointegration and error correction model to investigate the possible influence of key socio-political characters of a state on the causal relationship between financial development and economic growth. A developing economy (Nigeria) which had experienced decades of autocratic military governance was studied. Three characters of the state (ethnicity, civil war and military governance) were derived from a historical review and were introduced into the cointegration analysis as dummy variables.

Evidence of a causal relationship was found to exist from financial development to economic growth and the characters of the state were found to have no significant impact on this relationship.

The research limitations were based on the reliability of data recorded between 1960 and 2007.

This study is practical from the point of view of the integration of qualitative social disturbances into a quantitative model targeted at exploring the practical developmental impact these disturbances may have had and continue to have on economic growth.

The social implication of this study stems from the impact that adverse socio-political influences may have on financial development and economic growth.

This is an original piece of research focused at understanding the unique social, political and macroeconomic circumstance of a strategically relevant developing economy.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an additional insight into the dividend puzzle by investigating the field practice of dividend policy in an emerging market such as Nigeria. It also aims to contribute to the literature on industry-related dividend effect by examining whether managerial views on dividend policy vary between financial and non-financial firms.

The study employs semi-structured interviews with the financial managers of 21 Nigerian listed firms. The interviewees were divided into two broad groups of financial vs non-financial firms based on the industry classification of the firms.

The findings suggest that, despite differences in institutional environment, the dividend-setting process in Nigerian companies is similar in many extents to those in the USA and other developed markets. Nigerian companies exhibit dividend conservatism and typically focus on current earnings, stability of earnings and availability of cash when determining their current dividend levels. However, unlike in prior studies, the interviewees suggest that their companies do not have a target payout ratio; instead, they target the dividend per share when determining the disbursement level. Nevertheless, views regarding these issues vary significantly between financial and non-financial firms.

This paper adds to the extant literature that has examined the behavioural aspects of dividend policy using interviews, especially in the context of less-developed markets such as Nigeria. The study also updates and extends prior evidence on an industry-related effect on managerial perceptions of dividend policy.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the weaknesses of Nigerian social and political institutions.

Thematic analysis of interview and questionnaire data was undertaken.

The paper locates the Nigerian State as a weak state.

The paper adopted a qualitative research approach which is not generalizable.

Nigeria needs to restructure her social and political institutions otherwise the likelihood of becoming a failed state is indeed very high.

The prevalence of insecurity to lives and property as well as a growing level of poverty in Nigeria will lead to the failure of the Nigerian State.

This paper has immense value for social and political policy in Nigeria.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between board structure, financial performance and outreach of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Sri Lanka, using unbalanced panel data for 300 MFI-year observations for the period 2007 to 2012.

Empirical research relating to governance practices in MFIs is still in its infancy, and further studies are needed to determine how improved governance practices may enhance sustainability and outreach of MFIs, especially in emerging economies. The authors use regression techniques to examine whether board structure has an influence on MFI performance.

After controlling for internal corporate governance variables, regulatory status, size, age, leverage and year effects, the authors report that board structure does contribute to the financial performance and outreach of MFIs in Sri Lanka.

The availability of data in the public domain captures the major MFIs but does constrain the generalisability of findings.

This study enables individual MFIs to evaluate potential restructuring of their boards to promote a dual mission and achieve a more accelerated economic development.

The findings may encourage policy makers to promulgate policy guidelines to deepen MFI outreach to the poorest people.

Inconsistent findings in prior studies and a general lack of empirical results for the microfinance industry have led to an unclear message regarding corporate governance and MFI performance. This study fills the research gap, contributing to the existing corporate governance literature in the microfinance sector and providing evidence from an emerging economy.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of board experience and independence on mitigating agency conflict between shareholders and managers.

This paper uses a panel data of 137 firms listed on stock exchanges in Ghana and Nigeria over a period of seven years. System generalized method of moments and other estimation techniques were adopted for the study. Using agency and resource dependence theories, board experience and independence ignored in previous studies are selected for the study.

The findings of this paper indicate a negative and statistically significant relationship between board experience, board independence, and agency conflict. A further examination using an agency score computed from the principal factor analysis of the four main agency proxies indicates a significant and negative relationship between board independence and agency conflict, but a negative and statistically non-significant relation between board experience and agency conflict.

The authors’ evidence has important implications for countries that are currently or contemplating pursuing board reforms to recommend the appointment of more independent and experience directors to corporate board.

This paper introduces a new proxy for assessing human and social capital of directors to test the integration hypothesis of a unique data set from Ghana and Nigeria toward mitigating agency conflict.