The relationship between board composition and firm performance : Evidence from large and small Malaysian public listed companies / Muhammad Fakhrul Naim Alias

The main objective of this research is to study the relationship between board composition and firm performance. The independent variables involved in this study are board independence, board tenure, board gender diversity and board cultural diversity. The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between independent variables and dependent variables; firm performance, hence the hypothesis is noted. There is control variable used like firm size measured by total market capitalization of the companies. This research is carried out by using annual report of the companies and Thomson Reuters Eikon Data Stream as a part of the methodology in gathering data. The sampling method of this research is done by selecting 30 companies from Bursa Malaysia and categorized as 15 large and small companies based on market capitalization. The total number of the observation are 15 large companies and 15 small companies. The data collected has been analyzed through Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) is applied by the researchers to analyze the demographic data. The discussion of this research objectives and recommendation for future research were included in this research as well. As a result from this study, board tenure of large companies showed positive significant towards firm performance. However, board independence is negative insignificant toward firm performance while another variable, board gender diversity, board cultural diversity and firm size is positive insignificant towards firm performance. For small firms, all independent variables found no significant with firm performance.