Corporate Governance and its Impact on a Company's Financial Results; an Assessment of Listed Companies in the Market of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Whilst the corporate governance topic and subject is widely accepted and understood to be a sign of development and enhancement, the impact and magnitude of the impact that corporate governance has on the financial performance of companies is not clear, particularly for the market of Saudi Arabia. This Thesis Paper undertakes a detailed assessment of the 223 publicly listed companies in the market of Saudi Arabia. The companies are assessed over a period of four years from 1st January 2019 to 31st December 2023 with data points taken on share prices and board member renumeration. An extensive and rigorous data collection process was undertaken with over one hundred and forty thousand data points collected. The data was restructured and formatted to be uniform across the data sets. As corporate governance is a qualitative topic and the assessment is run using statistical methods, a rating was developed for each company as a corporate governance score that is empirical. For illustrative and visual purposes, the data reflecting the share price and corporate governance score was graphically presented. As part of the statistical analysis conducted, three regression models were specified and hypothesis set for each. The analysis undertaken as part of this Thesis Paper aims to determine whether there is a clear relationship between corporate governance and the financial performance companies in the case of Saudi Arabia.