IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jrisks/v12y2024i5p81-d1394486.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Board Characteristics and Bank Stock Performance: Empirical Evidence from the MENA Region

Author

Listed:
  • Antoine B. Awad

    (Accounting and Finance Department, College of Business, University of Doha for Science and Technology, Doha P.O. Box 24449, Qatar)

  • Robert Gharios

    (Marketing Department, College of Business, University of Doha for Science and Technology, Doha P.O. Box 24449, Qatar)

  • Bashar Abu Khalaf

    (Accounting and Finance Department, College of Business, University of Doha for Science and Technology, Doha P.O. Box 24449, Qatar)

  • Lena A. Seissian

    (Manoogian Simone College of Business and Economics, American University of Armenia, Yerevan 0019, Armenia)

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between the board characteristics and stock performance of commercial banks. Our analysis is based on a sample of 65 banks across 10 MENA countries and their quantitative data extracted between 2013 and 2022. This research employed pooled OLS, and fixed and random effect regression to confirm the association between board size, board independence, number of board meetings, and CEO duality with stock performance measured by the bank’s share price and market-to-book ratio. Further, several control variables were utilized such as the bank’s capital adequacy, profitability, and size. The empirical findings reveal that board independence positively affects the bank stock performance while the board size shows a negative relationship. This suggests that banks with fewer board members and high independence levels have their shares outperforming others. However, we found that having frequent board meetings per year and separate roles for the CEO and chairman have no impact on bank stock performance. Moreover, the findings indicate that the bank’s capital adequacy, size, and profitability have a positive effect on the stock performance. To test the robustness of our analysis, we implemented a one-limit Tobit model, which enables lower-bound censoring, and obtained similar findings thus confirming our hypotheses. From a practical perspective, our findings highlight the importance of the board size and the directors’ independence to MENA regulators and policymakers in an effort to implement an effective corporate governance system. Specifically, MENA banks are advised to decrease the number of board members, and this should reduce the number of annual board meetings which, in turn, should maximize performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Antoine B. Awad & Robert Gharios & Bashar Abu Khalaf & Lena A. Seissian, 2024. "Board Characteristics and Bank Stock Performance: Empirical Evidence from the MENA Region," Risks, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-23, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jrisks:v:12:y:2024:i:5:p:81-:d:1394486
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9091/12/5/81/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9091/12/5/81/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bashar Abu Khalaf & Antoine B. Awad & Scott Ellis, 2024. "The Impact of Non-Interest Income on Commercial Bank Profitability in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-15, March.
    2. Kojima Koji & Bishnu Kumar Adhikary & Le Tram, 2020. "Corporate Governance and Firm Performance: A Comparative Analysis between Listed Family and Non-Family Firms in Japan," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-20, September.
    3. Berger, Allen N. & Humphrey, David B., 1997. "Efficiency of financial institutions: International survey and directions for future research," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(2), pages 175-212, April.
    4. Paul Guest, 2009. "The impact of board size on firm performance: evidence from the UK," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(4), pages 385-404.
    5. Omer Saeed Habtoor, 2022. "Board Attributes and Bank Performance in Light of Saudi Corporate Governance Regulations," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-27, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Trofimov, Ivan D. & Md. Aris, Nazaria & Ying Ying, Jovena Kho, 2018. "Determinants of Commercial Banks' Profitability in Malaysia," MPRA Paper 85598, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Hasan, Iftekhar & Lozano-Vivas, Ana, 2002. "Organizational Form and Expense Preference: Spanish Experience," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 135-150, April.
    3. Manthos D. Delis & Sotirios Kokas & Steven Ongena, 2016. "Foreign Ownership and Market Power in Banking: Evidence from a World Sample," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 48(2-3), pages 449-483, March.
    4. Ahmad, Usman, 2011. "Financial Reforms and Banking Efficiency: Case of Pakistan," MPRA Paper 34220, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Ho, Chun-Yu, 2012. "Market structure, welfare, and banking reform in China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 291-313.
    6. Brissimis, Sophocles N. & Delis, Manthos D., 2011. "Bank-level estimates of market power," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 212(3), pages 508-517, August.
    7. ManYing Kang & Marcel Ausloos, 2017. "An Inverse Problem Study: Credit Risk Ratings as a Determinant of Corporate Governance and Capital Structure in Emerging Markets: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies," Economies, MDPI, vol. 5(4), pages 1-23, November.
    8. Barros, Carlos Pestana & Williams, Jonathan, 2013. "The random parameters stochastic frontier cost function and the effectiveness of public policy: Evidence from bank restructuring in Mexico," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 98-108.
    9. Helmi Hammami & Thanh Ngo & David Tripe & Dinh-Tri Vo, 2022. "Ranking with a Euclidean common set of weights in data envelopment analysis: with application to the Eurozone banking sector," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 311(2), pages 675-694, April.
    10. Martin Kyere & Marcel Ausloos, 2021. "Corporate governance and firms financial performance in the United Kingdom," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(2), pages 1871-1885, April.
    11. Dawood MAMOON, 2017. "Can micro credit schemes be introduced by formal banking sector?," Journal of Economics Library, KSP Journals, vol. 4(3), pages 359-371, September.
    12. Albertazzi, Ugo & Gambacorta, Leonardo, 2009. "Bank profitability and the business cycle," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 393-409, December.
    13. Ann‐Marie Ward & Donal G. McKillop, 2005. "The Law of Proportionate Effect: The Growth of the UK Credit Union Movement at National and Regional Level," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(9‐10), pages 1827-1859, November.
    14. Rosen Azad Chowdhury & Dilshad Jahan & Tapas Mishra & Mamata Parhi, 2023. "A Quality Dimension? A Re-appraisal of Financial Development and Economic Growth Nexus in a Quality-Quantity Setting," Working Papers 2023-02, Swansea University, School of Management.
    15. Mohammad Nourani & Qian Long Kweh & Evelyn Shyamala Devadason & V.G.R. Chandran, 2020. "A decomposition analysis of managerial efficiency for the insurance companies: A data envelopment analysis approach," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(6), pages 885-901, September.
    16. Tleubayev, Alisher & Bobojonov, Ihtiyor & Gagalyuk, Taras & Glauben, Thomas, 2020. "Board gender diversity and firm performance: Evidence from the Russian agri-food industry," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 23(1), pages 35-53.
    17. Soteriou, Andreas C. & Zenios, Stavros A., 1999. "Using data envelopment analysis for costing bank products," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 114(2), pages 234-248, April.
    18. H Fukuyama & W L Weber, 2009. "Estimating indirect allocative inefficiency and productivity change," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 60(11), pages 1594-1608, November.
    19. Sandrine Kablan & Ouidad Yousfi, 2015. "Performance of Islamic Banks across the World: An Empirical Analysis over the Period 2001-2008," International Journal of Empirical Finance, Research Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 4(1), pages 27-46.
    20. Fethi, Meryem Duygun & Pasiouras, Fotios, 2010. "Assessing bank efficiency and performance with operational research and artificial intelligence techniques: A survey," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 204(2), pages 189-198, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jrisks:v:12:y:2024:i:5:p:81-:d:1394486. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.