Response : Board Composition and Firm Performance : Evidence from Bangladesh – A Sceptical View

I have read the above paper with keen interest. The key finding of this paper is interesting: the appointment of independent directors has no perceptible influence on a firm’s economic performance in Bangladesh. The conclusion was derived from a sample of 274 firm-years. The implication of this finding is also very significant for regulators in Bangladesh and elsewhere ‘in their quest for harmonization of international corporate governance practices’ Rashid et al. (2010, p76). This paper also complements the results of an earlier paper on an allied topic by Bhuiyan and Biswas (2007) where they found that (p22) ‘corporate governance disclosure in Bangladesh is significantly influenced by local ownership, the SEC notification, and size of the company but belonging to financial or non-financial institution company, multinational company, age and size of the board of directors do not have significant impact on corporate governance disclosure. So steps should be taken for mandatory compliance of the SEC notification and for reducing the gap between large and small firms’ disclosure practices’.