Board of Directors, Audit Committee and the Financial Performance of Listed Companies in Malaysia

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between selected components of corporate governance and financial performance of listed companies in Bursa Malaysia. In this study, the most critical 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 on Bursa Malaysia. This study used a sample of 150 non-financial listed companies in Malaysia. This study differs than previous studies that separately study the effect of either the board characteristics or the audit committee characteristics. This study concerns on the combined effect of both, board of directors and audit committee, about return on equity. The study is based on companies’ data for the year 2014. Regression analysis is conducted using Statistical Package for Social Science Version 22 (SPSS 22), and the outcomes of this study show significant and positive relationships between all the independent variables and financial performance of companies listed on Bursa Malaysia. The study ended up with positive suggestions based on the limitations that have been faced while conducting this study.