Purpose: The aim of this paper is to examine the association between board demographics and firm financial performance of Karachi Stock Exchange companies and describe the attributes of these firms and their boards. The connection between board structure and firm performance has attracted much attention, especially in emerging economies, yet yielded many inconsistent empirical results.Design/methodology/approach: This study examines the relationship between board structure and the performance of Pakistani public listed companies by using a sample of Karachi Stock Exchange 100 (KSE-100) indexed companies. This study exploits the corporate performance by accounting-based measures (return on assets), market-based measures (Tobin’s Q), and economic profit (economic value added).Findings: The outcome of the study shows the positive relationship between the board size, minority representation in board, and family director’s in-board and firm performance. The authors also find that, instead of adding value, independent directors in Pakistan are negatively associated with firm value.Research limitations/implications: The study is based on KSE-100 indexed companies from 2009 to 2013; however, a large sample and multiple years’ data are required.Practical implications: The paper provides empirical evidence that board independence is not necessary for public-listed companies in Pakistan and would be of interest to regulatory bodies, business practitioners, and academic researchers.Originality/value: The paper contributes to the literature on corporate governance and firm performance by introducing a framework for identifying and analyzing moderating variables that affect the relationship between board structure and firm performance.

Malaysia is a developing economy which is one of the corporate leaders in South East Asian countries. Practicing audit committee is mandatory for public listed firms in Malaysia according to Bursa Malaysia Listing Requirements as well Malaysian Code of Corporate Governance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between audit committee characteristics and firm performance among public listed firms in Malaysia. This study employed EVA as performance measurement tool. The sample is 75 firm year observations and covers fiscal years 2008-2010. The study found that audit committee independence is positively associated with firm performance while audit quality is negatively associated in Malaysia. Overall, audit committee characteristics have a positive effect on firm performance. This study contributes to the literature as well as in empirical evidence on audit committee characteristics and firm audit quality. The results suggest that Big 4 firms have a negative impact on value based measure in Malaysia.

Purpose: This paper aims to focus mainly on the relationship between ownership structure and earnings management of a developed and two developing economies, and is distinct from prior research. Design/methodology/approach: Using a sample of firms from three countries (Australia, Malaysia and Pakistan), the detailed ownership evolutions for the period 2011-2013 were observed. Findings: Overall, the authors find that in the East, ownership concentration is negatively associated with financial reporting quality. Individual ownership and group ownership were negatively associated with earnings management in Pakistan, however, not in Malaysia where the same were positively associated. Further, the result of this study indicated that state ownership is negatively associated with firm performance. Among the control variables, it was found that larger firms were negatively correlated with financial reporting, while firms with a larger board size and mature in the maneuver were coupled positively with earnings management. Originality/value: The results highlight the highly individualized effects of blockholders and the need for research to further understand the mechanisms through which shareholders impact financial reporting quality.

The connection between ownership structure and firm performance has attracted significant attention especially in emerging markets, yet empirical evidence remains inconsistent. This article presents an analysis of the association among eight categories of ownership, Hirschman–Herfindahl index (HHI) index, Gini index, and firm performance in the emerging market of Pakistan. Some researchers argue that ownership concentration can improve firm performance by making the owners more willing or able to monitor agents. In contrast, others argue that in the presence of efficient markets, market monitoring will discipline the managers. Our results show that there is a significant positive association between ownership structure and both market-based performance measures and also economic profit. The ownership proportion of the institutional shareholding and foreign shareholding is also positively associated with firm performance.