Corporate governance: The effect of board governance roles on company performance

Since the major corporate scandals of 2001 and concerns about the performance of corporations and the way they are governed, corporate governance have been put at the center of public and academic debates. Equally, corporate boards worldwide have attracted a great deal of attention through different lenses especially when it is considered that there have been significant changes in the regulations, and relationships between management, boards, and shareholders.This research intends to deal with shortcomings of majority of corporate governance research that handle board of directors solely with board structure and aims to extend board characteristics with the attributes of board members with their governance roles as perceived in the social context of organization. In the light of this purpose, it attempts to develop a conceptual model based on the dimensions of board governance roles as perceived by organizational members, board characteristics, transparency, and company performance. The conceptual model is analyzed with an empirical study of the board governance roles dimensions of high and low-performing companies. The study also empirically examines the moderating effects of transparency and board structure on board governance roles and company performance. The empirical phase of the research is based on the data gathered from the Istanbul Stock Exchange companies. 60 companies are selected through convenience sampling with 333 respondents.This research is conducted in Turkey that has attracted increasing numbers of foreign investors in the last 10 years. Level and quality of the corporate governance and company performance are among the most important criteria for both foreign and domestic investors of Istanbul Stock Exchange. Board governance roles, board structure and transparency are set to ensure level and quality of corporate governance mechanism which are tested in this research aiming to add additional perspectives to corporate governance literature in Turkey.Keywords: Corporate Governance, Company Performance, Board Roles, Board Structure, Transparency, Turkey