Abstract:

This paper aims to explore whether and how specific corporate governance and internal audit determinants affect the performance of businesses in the countries internationally called P.I.G.S. (Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain respectively). The sample consists of listed companies of the Southern European countries P.I.G.S. The survey data covers the period 2011-2016. Statistical analysis was based on a panel data regression model. In contrast to the majority of the researches, this paper finds that the Audit Committee Independence and the Number of Board Meetings have a negative and statistically significant impact on corporate performance measured by Return on Assets (ROA). In addition, the Board Size has a positive and statistically significant impact on firms’ performance. There is evidence that firms’ profitability may behave differently in countries with similar macroeconomic and cultural characteristics.