IMPACT OF BOARD CHARACTERISTICS ON FIRM PERFORMANCE: DYNAMIC PANEL EVIDENCE OF THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY IN THE REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA

Abstract

Corporate governance is a crucial mechanism for the organizations’ actions to maintain market successful adequate and targeted policies and long-term strategies that ensure the maximization of shareholders’ benefits. The board of directors is appointed by organizations’ shareholders and its main role is to be responsible and accountable and to ensure enforcement of the top management acts concerning the fulfillment of the shareholder’s interests. For this to be achieved, it is important for the board to be efficient, effective, and focused on protecting the organization and shareholder’s interests. Good corporate governance and more specifically, board characteristics play a central role in companies’ management, coordination, and control mechanisms. The paper analyses various theoretical and empirical findings regarding the prominence of various board characteristics within companies and particularly evaluates the impact of board characteristics on the financial performance of listed companies in the insurance industry in the Republic of North Macedonia. The financial ratio ROA is used as a proxy and as a variable for firm performance while the board experience, CEO duality, board size, board composition, and gender diversity are set to be as independent variables. Based on the variables related to board characteristics, hypotheses are developed and their impact upon firm performance is examined with the use of Generalized Methods of Moments (GMM), a pairwise correlation matrix, as well as with multicollinearity VIF test. In that direction, this paper aims to determine the level of effectiveness of current governance mechanisms and based on the results, propose measures and actions for successfully handling agency costs while maximizing governance capability and performance in the insurance sector in the Republic of North Macedonia.