THE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE DRIVERS: WHAT RELATIONS WITH PERFORMANCE AND RISK? EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM ITALIAN CONTEXT

Considering a sample of Italian firms and defining a good Governance index (gGI), we investigated if there is a relation between the gGI, the performance and the default risk and which governance determinants are most responsible of these effects. To deepen the analysis, the aforementioned relations are also observed by comparing family and non-family firms and the companies more or less active in M&A. We found that the Corporate Governance quality presents some correlations with performance and risk. The non-family companies are better structured, showing a positive correlation between some Corporate Governance drivers and performance and Z-score. Furthermore, the “well-advised” firms in external strategies are able to obtain a better correlation with performance and also a good relation with Z-score