Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical insights on the impact of board and audit committee characteristics on the financial performance of United Arab Emirates (UAE) listed firms.Design/methodology/approach – A multiple regression panel model was employed for the period 2006 to 2015. The analysis incorporates Anderson Lagrange Multiplier test and Hausman test to determine if a fixed effects or random effects model should be employed.Findings – Our results demonstrated that board size and board meetings had a significant positive relationship with financial performance while there were also significant positive relationships between both audit committee composition and audit committee members’ education and firm financial performance.Research limitations/implications – The findings inform UAE firms about the benefits of employing directors with a more diverse skill set to enhance board effectiveness as well as having audit committee members hold a recognised qualification in finance or accounting to improve firm financial performance.Originality/value – Our study contributes to the CG literature by adding to the limited studies on CG in the UAE which help reduce the significant gap between foundation theories and practical applicability.

This study undertook a comparison of the changes to corporate governance (CG) practices, based on the UAE CG codes, for three different periods of time between 2006 to 2007, 2009 to 2010 and 2013 to 2014. An ordinary least squares model, along with analysis of variance testing, was employed to compare this. The study sample included 47 listed firms in the UAE. The changes made to the CG code during the study period affected the audit and board committee characteristics. The results show that the second CG code change had the most significant effect on board meetings, board members’ education, board members’ experience, audit committee meetings and audit committee members’ education impact on the financial performance of UAE listed firms. The potential policy implications arising from the study centre on ensuring greater firm compliance to meet the expectations of the regulatory body, as mandated in the CG code.