Board of directors specificities in the context of Portuguese corporate governance and corporate law

Abstract

The corporate governance is a mechanism to protect investors in the markets around the world. This study analyses the board of directors’ specificities in the context of Portuguese Corporate Governance, and study the corporate governance effect of Portuguese listed firms on firm performance. The results show that the Latin Model (Two-Tier Model) is the most (least) adopted by Portuguese firms. The percentage of executive members is higher than that of non-executive members. In the year of 2014, women held only 9.5% of positions on board, which is very low. The results concerning the relationship between corporate governance and firms’ performance are not consensual. Although some studies find evidence of a positive relation between the two variables, others find no relationship. With this study, we contribute to the state of art of corporate governance in a country which investigation is still scarce.