Purpose This paper aims to report the results of an investigation into the effect of aggregate and individual corporate governance factors on the financial performance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Kenya. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses balanced panel data regression analysis on a sample of 45 SOEs in Kenya for a four-year period (2015–2018). Findings The panel data analysis results show that board meetings, board skill and gender diversity individual provisions of corporate governance are significantly and positively associated with capital budget realization ratio (CBRR). Moreover, the study finds that aggregate corporate governance disclosure index, board sub-committees, board size and independent non-executive directors are positive but insignificantly related to CBRR. Research limitations/implications The current study is based on secondary data, other methods of knowledge inquiry such as interviews and questionnaires may provide additional insights on the effectiveness of corporate governance on financial performance. Practical implications Overall, the results imply that corporate governance influences the performance of SOEs in Kenya. The results suggest that Mwongozo Code of Corporate Governance provisions should be changed to increase the number of women representations on board and the number of directors with doctoral qualifications because of their positive impact on the financial performance of SOEs in Kenya. Also, policymakers with remit over SOEs should re-evaluate why other corporate governance appear not to have an impact with a view of making the necessary changes. Originality/value The paper contributes to the dearth of literature on the efficacy of corporate governance on the financial performance of SOEs in developing countries.

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This study aimed at establishing the stakeholders that managers consider in the CER practices as well as the association between the quality of CER and stakeholder identification. The purpose is to find out if there is a difference in the attention that managers give to different stakeholders with respect to CER reporting decision and whether such difference may explain the variation in the quality of CER. A questionnaire was used to establish the stakeholder power, legitimacy urgency and salience in stakeholder identification. An assessment, using regression, was carried out to establish the association between the stakeholder identification attributes and the quality of CER. It is found that there are different stakeholders considered in the practice of CER but in varying measures. While Government, Shareholders, Customers and Environmental lobby groups are identified as the most significant stakeholder groups in CER reporting, only government is associated with relatively higher quality. There is thus a need for the government to use its special position in society to influence the production of CER that can achieve high quality. But there is also a need for other stakeholder groups to recognise their special place in demanding high quality CER through direct influence in terms of controlling flow of resources and markets to corporation but also petitioning government to continue playing its social role of guiding production of high quality CER. This research contributes to knowledge by establishing the significant stakeholders, the association of stakeholder identification to the quality of CER and by testing applicability of stakeholder theory in CER practices.