Purpose: The empirical study aims to examine the impact of board diversity with respect to gender and nationality on firm performance in an emerging economy. This research further splits the sample into family and non-family domains and investigates the diversity–performance nexus in isolation.Design/methodology/approach: The sample consists of 183 listed companies in Bangladesh over the period 2007 to 2017. This study employed the generalised method of moments (GMM) technique to address the possible endogeneity issue in the governance–performance connection. To underscore the strength of diversity, three distinctive assessment measures were used: percentage representation of females and foreign directors, the Blau index and the Shannon index.Findings: The results for the full sample models reveal that board heterogeneity regarding both female and foreign directors positively and significantly influences firm performance as measured by return on assets (ROA). Further to this, female directors in family-owned businesses have a positive association with profitability, whereas foreign nationals demonstrate a significant positive association with performance in non-family firms. Additionally, at least three women directors are needed to make a positive difference in profitability; however, a sole director with foreign nationality is capable of demonstrating a similar impact on performance.Practical implications: The findings are significant for policymakers and organisations that advocate diversity on corporate boards of directors, and the minimum number of diverse board members needs to be considered depending on the identity to bring about a significant change in organisational outcome. Therefore, the findings of this study may be applied to other emerging economies with similar institutional characteristics.Originality/value: This study reinforces the existing stock of knowledge on the impact of board diversity on the profitability of firms, especially in the context of an emerging economy – Bangladesh. Irrespective of the given backdrop, this study finds that both gender and nationality diversity in the case of Bangladesh is found to have a positive and significant effect on financial performance with respect to all the diversity metrics, i.e. the proportionate number of female and foreign directors on the boards, the Blau index and the Shannon index.

This research investigates corporate governance (CG) norms in Bangladesh, a developing nation. This study assesses the codes’ key aspects and how they have evolved since the first code was released in 2006. This analysis shows that BSEC changed its recommendations from voluntary to mandatory in the subsequent revisions in 2012 and 2018. The modified versions increased board independence compared to the original code, although it is still lower than in some other emerging nations. Recent changes to the rules include conditions on the nomination and remuneration committees, along with some other amendments. However, critical governance components, such as choosing an independent board member as chair, improving board independence, and assuring gender diversity, could be implemented in future code development. It is believed that investors would be more interested in Bangladesh’s capital market if the policymakers could make the proposed modifications in accordance with the distinctive institutional features of an emerging economy.

The study investigates the association between board independence, directors' ownership, and organisational profitability. To illustrate the links, the case of listed nonfinancial enterprises on the Dhaka Stock Exchange between 2015 and 2019 is examined. To effectively manage the concern of endogeneity, the generalized method of moments (GMM) is used as the econometric techniquein this research. The study reveals that board independence has a negative and significant effect on profitability, however, the effect of directors' shareholdings on the same is positive and significant. Further to this, the study finds that ownership of directors positively moderates the adverse effect of board independence on organisational performance. The outcome of this study suggests that the influence of a certain governance component may behave differently depending on the power of ownership concentration.