The main objective of this paper is to explore the most significant determinants of financial distress of manufacturing companies in Indonesia and to provide explanations on this issue by using multiple regression models. With Modigliani and Miller’s and Trade-off theories were reviewed to formulate a testable proposition on the determinants of financial distress of manufacturing companies in Indonesia. Multiple regression models were used as a statistical tool to investigate the most significant profitability determinants of manufacturing companies in Indonesia. The Lisrel software was used to analyze 300 manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. It was found that institutional ownership, firm size, profitability, and board independence as variables had a positive relationship in an effort to avoid financial distress. Meanwhile, the board size variable had an insignificant positive relationship. The findings are consistent with the pecking order and financial agency theory which helps in understanding the application of financial distress studies for manufacturing companies in Indonesia.

This study examines the effects of board structure on information disclosure in annual reports of the listed firms in Sub-Saharan Africa countries' stock exchanges. Findings indicate that board size is positive and significantly related to information disclosure. However, findings indicate that the percentage of outside directors is not significantly related to information disclosure. This study contributes to corporate governance literature, especially in regard to the association between attributes of board structure and information disclosure. Findings of this study provide some practical benefits to regulators and policymakers in understanding the nexus between board structure and information disclosure in Sub-Saharan Africa. This would help policymakers and regulators to formulate policies and regulations with regards to board structure and good corporate governance practices, specifically those related to information disclosure.

The issues of audit quality and audit committee have received huge consideration from the auditing profession, the general public population and the government controllers particularly after the prominent corporate outrages in firms like Enron, Global Crossing, Tyco, and WorldCom. These concerns discourage investors to invest in foreign and local businesses. The primary objective of the current study is to explore the impact of internal and external governance mechanisms such as board size, audit committee independence, audit committee expertise, and audit committee meetings on the quality of audit in selected firms. The study is carried out on a sample of Iraqi non-financial firms. The dependent variable is the audit quality measured as a dummy variable and it receives 1 if a firm receives audit services of big five auditing firms and zero, otherwise. To achieve the research objectives the study uses logit regression technique. The results indicate that there was a positive relationship between audit quality and the percentage of non-executive directors in the audit committee. The findings of the current study will be helpful for policymakers, researchers, accountants, financial experts, and audit practitioners in understanding the importance of the concept of audit quality and the key factors which affect the audit quality of any non-financial firms in Iraq.

The focus of this study is to examine the impact of board of directors’ size and meetings on the audit committee meeting frequency among energy, materials and food and beverages sectors listed on Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) for the period 2015-2017. The final sample of this study consists of 198 firm-year observations. Using the Pooled OLS regression, this study finds that board meeting is positively associated with audit committee meeting frequency. Furthermore, this study fails to report an association between board size and audit committee meeting frequency. This study provides insightful evidence to policy makers on the determinants influencing the audit committee meeting frequency among manufacturing companies.

The study examines the effect of board size, frequency of board meetings and frequency of audit committee meetings on the market value of 11 Jordanian commercial banks as measured by Tobin’s Q. Random effect panel data regression is employed to test the study hypotheses. Results reveal that board size has a significant and negative effect on bank market value. Results also show that frequency of board meetings has no effect on bank value, while the frequency of audit committee meetings has a significant and positive effect on bank value. The results suggest that the argument of agency theory and resource independence theory towards the role of board and its committees in supporting firm value should be always combined with the appropriate size. Accordingly, one important implication of the study is that the selection of an appropriate number of board members and the prior effective preparation for their meetings are critical factors to enhance the value of banks in Jordan.

We examine the impact of the firm’s life-cycle on board composition of Vietnam's listed firms. The data is balanced and covered over the period 2012-2018 for 442 Vietnam listed firms. We use a fixed-effects regressions analysis to examine the effect of a firm's life-cycle (Lifecycle), and dummy variables of firm's life-cycle (Growth, Mature, Decline) on the board composition (board size, board independence, CEO duality). Our findings show the board composition of Vietnam’s listed firms tends to decrease with the firm's life-cycle. Therefore, the firms need to adjust board composition to a proper level promptly to improve their competitiveness, and consider the supervisory function of the board members is not enough positive in the life-cycle of the firms.

This study aims to analyze the ability to determine the weight of securities of stocks, bonds, mutual funds and deposits in the implementation of employer pension funds in Indonesia based on variables of asset allocation, portfolio turnover, board size, institutional ownership and diversification of the portfolio performance. The data collection method used was non-participant observation. By using a data pooling technique which combined time series data over period 2016-2018 and a cross section data of 64 Employer Pension Funds (DPPK, Employer Pension Funds), 192 observed analysis units were obtained. The effect of the variables was analyzed by using Structural Equation Modeling (path) as the analysis technique and using LISREL (Linear Structural Relationships) program. The test results showed that the asset allocation strategy had a positive effect on the investment portfolio performance. The same also happened to institutional ownership and diversification variables which also had a positive and significant effect on the investment portfolio performance. However, this study showed that there was no positive effect on the board size and portfolio turnover on the investment portfolio performance. Theoretical and managerial implications and also the limitations of this study are discussed at the end of this study.

Accountability is instrumental for ensuring that a trusting relationship exists between shareholders and management of corporations in order that there will be enhanced investor confidence. Towards this end, corporate governance measures are instituted to make the executives or management of business organizations accountable for their stewardships of the organizational resources or shareholders’ investments. It is against that backdrop that the Securities and Exchange Commission in Ghana has also developed a code on best practices on corporate governance. However, the extent to which the provisions in the code are consistent with the theoretical and empirical literature is unknown. This paper, therefore, sought to explore whether or not gaps exist between the corporate governance policy and practices in Ghana and extant literature. This paper achieves this by examining characteristics of the board as they exist in Ghana in relations to the literature. The characteristics examined in this paper include responsibilities, optimal size, independence, board composition, and audit and compensation committees of boards. Recommendations are made based on the literature to address gaps that exist.