The Nexus Between Corporate Governance and Firm Performance During COVID-19 Pandemic in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The COVID-19 has redefined the world operation. Specially COVID-19 pandemic shows a higher impact on the business field. Accordingly, this study aims to find the impact of corporate governance on firm performance during the Covid-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka. The quantitative methodology deployed and secondary data was collected from 27 companies listed in Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) for 209 and 2020. The results depicted that pandemic has affected the Corporate Governance (CG) measures unfavorably. Further, board size and qualification of director’s show a positive association between firm performance meantime, NED proportion, Gender diversity, Board meeting, Audit committee size and Audit committee meeting show a negative association between firm performance. It clearly reveals that COVID-19 severely impact the corporate governance attributes and firm performance. The corporate management, regulators, and investors must consider the board’s board size and qualification to recover the corporate sector in any crisis. This study provides a unique contribution to the literature of COVID-19 and firm performance in emerging economies.