Corporate Governance in Gulf countries: The Effects on firms' performance - Dissertation Example

This falls within the Corporate Governance guidelines on size of boards. The number of executive directors on the board averaged 0.76 with a standard deviation of 0.83. Some years recorded the highest number of 8 executive board members while some had none of their board members being an executive. This means that some of the firms did not have their CEOs as board members. It is therefore interesting how the board interacted with the management of such firms since the CEO is always the link between the board and the executive management.

Independent directors averaged 5.48 members with a standard deviation of 2.16. Some of the years recorded no independent board members while the maximum number of independent board members recorded was 12. Some of the firms therefore flaunted the corporate governance rules with none of the board members being independent in some of the years. Table 1 also shows that firm performance per year as measured by Tobin’s q averaged 1.878 with a standard deviation of 1.791. There was therefore a very high variability in firm performance as measured by the Tobin’s q.

The minimum Tobin’s q was 0.142 while the highest was 12.899. Firm leverage ranged from the lowest of -7126.54 to the highest of 142,376. Some firms were therefore highly leveraged than the others. The mean leverage was 465.8 with a standard deviation of 21.2. . Table 2 shows that Qatar had one firm that had a CEO acting as the board chairman while the size of the board ranged from 4 – 13 members. Firms had up to 3 executive directors in Qatar while the number of independent managers ranged from 4 – 12 board members.

The GDP growth in Qatar averaged 16.95% and ranged from 12% - 18.8%. Firm performance in Oman as measured by Tobin’s q averaged 0.68 and ranged from 0.14 – 1.37. Table 3 shows that United Arab Emirates had one CEO acting as chair of the board and the board size averaged 7.29 members with some firms having as low as 3 members while others having as high as 11 board members. The board had up to 3 executive directors and 3 – 11 independent directors. GDP growth averaged 6.88% and ranged between -1.61% and 9.91%.

Tobin’s q averaged 0.66 and ranged 0.19 to 2.27. Table 4 shows the results for Kuwait. As shown, one CEO also doubled up a board chair. The board size in Kuwait averaged 6 members with a minimum of 3 members and a maximum of 10 members. The executive directors ranged from zero to 4 members while the number of independent directors sitting on the board ranged from 2 – 9 members. The GDP growth averaged 3.4% ranging from -5.15% – 8.19%. The Tobin’s q averaged 3.41 and ranged from 0.90 to 12.89. Table 5 shows that Oman had one CEO doubling as chair of the board of directors and had a board size that averaged 7.

19 members and ranged between 4 – 13 members. Of these, some firms had up to 5 board members being executive directors. Independent directors averaged 6.2 members and ranged from zero to 12 members. GDP growth for Oman averaged 5.95% and ranged between 1.1% and 12.8%. Tobin’s q averaged 1.35 and ranged from 0.15 to 5.31.