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The study aims to examine the impact of board characteristics on firm performance of non-financial institutions in Jordan. The study employs the random effects regression model to analyze the panel data of 77 non-financial institutions of the industrial and services sector over the period 2008–2019. Firm performance is measured by return on assets ROA. While board characteristics were explained by board size, CEO duality, CEO tenure, non-executive directors (NEDs), and a number of board meetings. Firm age and firm size were added to our model as control variables. Our results reveal that board size, CEO tenure, non-executive directors (NEDs), firm age, and firm size have a positive significant impact on firm performance, whereas the CEO duality and a number of board meetings have a negative significant impact on firm performance. This paper will contribute to the ongoing debate on the relationship between the board characteristics and firm performance. Therefore, the current study extends previous literature by providing empirical evidence about the relationship between board characteristics and a firm performance. Particularly in developing countries, there is relatively a little researched area. Jordanian firms are needed to consider the significance of the board characteristics especially, for the non-financial institutions that can help them in designing the board strategies to enhance their performance. Therefore, Jordanian data will offer new empirical evidence in an emerging market, which will provide a better understanding of the relationship between board characteristics and firm performance.

This study offers new insights to help improve our understanding of the impact of female representation on firm performance, as measured by return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) and using non-financial institution data from Jordan. The study utilizes a lagged dependent variable in the regression models by employing the generalized method of moments (GMM) for dynamic panel analysis of the panel data of 77 companies over the period 2008-2018. The results of the regression analysis reveal that leverage, board size, and firm size were positive and statistically significant, while the age of the firm was statistically significant but had a negative effect, which indicates the existence of a relationship between these variables and the performance of Jordanian companies. However, the results fail to show any effect of the impact of female representation on firm performance as measured by return on assets and return on equity. This finding might be attributed to the low representation of females on non financial institution boards, which was only 3.63%, a very low figure compared to that of males on Jordanian boards. Therefore, our results are valid only for Jordanian firms and cannot be generalized to ones in other countries, which might have different cultural and legal perspectives.

This paper aims at modeling and analyzing the short and long run effects of export diversification on economic growth using the countries Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) panel data for the period 1992-2017. The paper introduces the panel auto regressive distributed lag/pooled mean group (ARDL/PMG) to reach its purpose. The export diversification measured by Theil index. The Pedroni panel cointegration test confirms that the variables are cointegrated, whereas PMG estimates indicate a positive significant long run relationship between export diversification and real gross domestic product (GDP) growth, no significant effect of export diversification in the short run. Results reveal a significant impact of trade openness growth on real GDP growth, which confirms the long-run as well as the short-run relationship between the growth of trade openness and economic growth for the GCC countries. It is worth to mention that the overall effort for GCC region on average had succeed in diversification, and the achieving of their plans goal is start to appear as a long run effect. But the study reveals that results may differ relatively in each country.

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