The Effect of Board of Directors and Audit Committee Characteristics on Company Performance in Jordan

Abstract

A comparative study was conducted to evaluate the effects of audit committee and directorates on the performance characteristics of selected companies in Jordan. The approach of panel data was adopted between 2015 to 2019 (4 years), with listed samples of 140 non-financial industries under the ASE. These firms stand for about 60% of listed firms in Jordan. Considering the audit committee and directorates effects of board characteristics on company’s performance, a total number of seven (7) variables of directorates and that of auditing committee were identified: an independent board of director, meetings of the board, size of the board, structure of the leadership, size of auditing committee, independent auditing committee together with proficiency of audit committee. The performance characteristics of companies were evaluated by means of (ROA) measure of accounting based performance. It was indicated from the results that, the following variables (independent board of directors, expert in auditing committee positively had impact on the performance ability of the selected firms. It was also revealed that, independent auditing committee together with board size of smaller capacity could enhance the performance potential of the firms. In addition to this, No significant difference was revealed on the performance of firms in term of frequency of board meetings and structure of leadership. The present research however adds more contribution to the literature on how the nature of directorate board and auditing committee could affect performance of a company in Jordan and other developing nations. However, information of great important value could assist academicians, policy makers alongside with concern stakeholders.