Impact of Board's Characteristics, Audit Committee Characteristics Over Firm Performance

The purpose of the study was to identify the significance of selected components of corporate governance over performance of companies listed in Bursa Malaysia. In this study the most important components of corporate governance; including board independence, board size, board expertise, audit committee size, audit committee independence, and audit committee expertise have been examined as the independent variables that influence the financial performance of companies listed in Bursa Malaysia. This study has been carried out over a sample of 150 best non-financial listed companies of Malaysia. The study is different from previous studies, as in previous studies either the board characteristics are observed or the audit committee characteristics are observed, but in this study the combined effect of both have been analysed in relation to return on equity. The study is based on cross sectional analysis and the year 2014 has been analysed. Regression analysis was conducted using Statistical Package for Social Science Version 22 (SPSS 22). The outcomes of this study identified that all the variables have a significant positive impact over performance of financial performance of the companies. The study ended up with certain suggestions on the basis of limitations that have been faced while conducting this study.