The Relationship betweeen Corporate Governance and Firms Performance in a Small Stock Market

This study analyzes the relationship between Corporate Governance and firm’s performance, considering a sample of Portuguese listed firms for the 2010-2020 period, exploring also the effect of COVID-19 on companies’ performance. The results show that higher level of managerial ownership and gender diversity impact positively on firms’ performance. However, no evidence was found that a representation of three or more female directors leads to an increase in performance. In addition, the results suggest that there is a negative relationship between leverage and performance when performance is analyzed with a market-based performance measure. Finally, the study found evidence that the COVID-19 had a negative impact on corporate performance.