5. Conclusions
This study investigated the role of corporate governance in the fi- nancial performance of firms. A multi-method multi-country approach was used to do so. This study makes two important contributions to the business finance literature. First, it highlights the value of using multiple empirical techniques to increase the robustness of results. It also underlines the limitations of traditional multiple OLS regression analysis. The results suggest that non-linear techniques (Poisson regression) and fsQCA provide deeper empirical insight. While regression analysis (OLS or Poisson) offers unidirectional averages, fsQCA highlights an additional path to increase returns even with high ownership dispersion. The use of both methods is useful for understanding complex relationships. Second, we report interesting findings for academics and practitioners. This study was based on agency theory, which provides the theoretical foundations that we used to study the link between corporate governance and financial performance. The lessons learned from this study can help practitioners (CFOs and CEOs) design corporate fi- nancial strategies. This study is not without limitations. It reflects the general situation of a pool of heterogeneous firms. Further research is needed to adapt the lessons learned from this study to specific sectors or regions. At best, our study captures the variation of around 20% of ROE. Therefore, further studies should be developed to explain the unknown variation of financial performance.
