Corporate Governance and Financial Performance: The Impact of The Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The main objective of the paper is to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the relationship between corporate governance and the financial performance of Serbian companies. The research was conducted on 22 non-financial companies listed on the Belgrade Stock Exchange between 2018 and 2022. The data are retrieved from the official websites of the Serbian Business Registers Agency and Belgrade Stock Exchange. The results suggest that the impact of ownership concentration on profitability is negative, while the impact on the market value is positive. On the other hand, the size of the board of directors negatively impacts profitability, while the share of non-executive directors in the board of directors negatively impacts market value. Results also indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic affected the relationship between corporate governance and financial performance and that the impact of corporate governance on financial performance was more significant before the COVID-19 pandemic.