THE EFFECTS OF BOARD STRUCTURE ON THE FIRM FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF TANZANIAN LISTED FIRMS

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of the board structure variables of board size, outside directors and CEO duality on firm financial performance of the listed firms in Tanzania. This study uses a sample of listed Tanzanian firms from 2006 to 2018 and uses balanced panel data Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression analysis of 120 firms-year observations obtained from the firms’ audited annual reports and the OSIRIS database. Furthermore, in order to address the endogeneity problem, this study uses the Random effect regression model and the Two Stage Least Square (2SLS) regression model as a robustness test. The results show that the smaller the board size with a higher proportion of outside directors and no CEO duality, the greater the firm’s financial performance. This study contributes to the understanding of the relationship between board structure and financial performance and it provides academic evidence to Tanzanian policy makers of current and future Corporate Governance reforms. First, dissimilar to most previous Corporate Governance literature that relates to developed countries, this study examines the effects of the board structure variables of board size, outside directors and CEO duality in Tanzania which is a developing country where very few Corporate Governance research studies have been conducted. It addresses the endogeneity problems between board structure and firm financial performance using Random effect regression and Two Stage Least Square (2SLS) regression models