Audit Committee, Corporate Governance and Firm Performance: Empirical Evidence from India
Considering the endorsement of Indian Companies Act (2013) the study examines the role of audit committee characteristics (independence and frequency of meetings) in addition with other components of corporate governance (duality, promoter shareholding, board composition, and board size) in improving firm performance. Fixed effect panel data regression was applied on 235 non financial public limited companies listed in NSE 500. The time period considered was ten years (2004 to 2013) Return on Assets, Return on Equity, Tobini s q and Market Capitalization were used as proxy of firm performance. Results reveal significant positive association of board size and CEO Chairman dual role with firm performance. However, findings did not reveal any additional effect of audit committee independence and its meeting frequency on the financial performance of Indian firms. Regulators and policy makers may reexamine the significance of greater independence of board and audit committee in context of firm performance.