This study investigates the impact of the separate elements of corporate governance on enterprise financial performance explained in three separate models (ROA, ROE, and Debt Ratio) for non-financial companies present within the S&P Pan Arab Composite Index. The data on corporate governance choices includes 225 firms for ten years from 2006 to 2015 gathered from ORBIS, Reuters Eikon, Datastream, as well as, annual and board reports. The firms included in this study are all listed respective to their country‘s stock exchange, which are present in eleven Arab countries namely: Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates. The corporate governance variables are divided into board structure variables (which includes Board size, Board independence, Duality Separation, and Diversity), ownership structure variables (which includes Ownership concentration, Direct ownership, Institutional ownership, and Foreign ownership), and controlled variables (which includes Firm size, Firm age, Industry type, Auditor type, as well as country Foreign exchange, Inward FDI, Outward FDI, GDP and Revolution). Furthermore, the topic attempts to understand the significance of the Arab Spring uprising on firm performance using the ROA and ROE measurements and debt ratio as a measurement of firm leverage. Furthermore, the data is used to compare the corporate governance variables five years before the Arab Spring uprising to the five years during/after the uprising. Regression results are demonstrated in the form of models. Model 1 shows the effect of corporate governance on firm performance measured by ROA. Results show that there is a significant positive relationship with board size, institutional ownership, audit type on firm performance measured by ROA, also there a significant negative relationship with duality, foreign ownership, firm size and the revolution variable on firm performance measured by ROA. Model 2 shows the effect of corporate governance on firm performance measured by ROE. Results show that there is a significant positive relationship with board size, institutional ownership, audit type on firm performance measured by ROE, also there a significant negative relationship with duality, firm size and the revolution variable on firm performance measured by ROE. Model 3 shows the effect of corporate governance on firm performance measured by Debt Ratio. Results show that there is a significant positive relationship with director ownership, foreign ownership, firm size, foreign exchange rate and the revolution variable on firm performance measured by Debt Ratio, also there a significant negative relationship with duality, institutional ownership and firm age on firm performance measured by ROE. After conducing Mann-Whitney U test, results shows that the variables ROA, ROE, ownership concentration, director ownership, institutional ownership, foreign ownership, firm size, firm age, foreign exchange rate, outward foreign direct investment, inward foreign direct investment and GDP are all statistically significant. The variables ROA, ROE, foreign exchange rate, outward foreign direct investment and inward foreign direct investment were a higher mean rank before the Arab Spring uprising compared to during/after the Arab Spring uprising. On the other hand, the variables ownership concentration, director ownership, institutional ownership, foreign ownership, firm size, firm age and GDP were a higher mean rank during/after the Arab Spring uprising compared to before the Arab Spring uprising.

This study investigates the impact of the separate elements of corporate governance on enterprise financial performance explained in three separate models (ROA, ROE, and Debt Ratio) for non-financial companies present within the S&P Pan Arab Composite Index. The data on corporate governance choices ...