The Association of Board Composition, Intellectual Capital and Firm Performance in a High Ownership Concentration Context: Evidence from Italy

The association of Corporate Governance (CG) with Firm Performance (FP) has always been an issue relevant to management literature. Nevertheless, the notable heterogeneity of studies and their mixed results highlight the opportuneness of continuing to investigate the association of CG with FP. The article aims to contribute to this research by building and employing a sophisticated model to take into account beyond the board composition ownership structure and firm efficiency in using its intellectual capital (as measured by VAICTM). The findings provide evidence that the board composition, the ownership concentration and the efficiency of intellectual capital increases firm efficiency in producing profits (as measured by ROA). Furthermore, our findings add knowledge to the relationship between CG and FP, by confirming a positive relationship in Italy, a continental European capital market under-investigated on this issue.