Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science

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Article http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jhass.2023.08.031

The Impact of Board Characteristics on Corporate Performance: A Case of Unilever PLC

Tingjuan Wang

University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.

*Corresponding author: Tingjuan Wang

Published: September 15,2023

Abstract

Objective: This research is conducted to examine the association between board characteristics and firm’s performance for Unilever PLC. Methodology: This is a quantitative descriptive and analytical research in which annual reports of Unilever PLC was retrieved for the last 10 years from 2013-2022. The data on board characteristic and firm performance including (board size, number of independent directors, number of non-executive directors, gender diversity, CEO Duality, Return on Assets (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE) are collected. The data is entered into SPSS and descriptive, correlational and regression analysis was performed to assess the relationship. Findings: Empirical findings revealed no significant association between any of the board characteristics and firm performance for Unilever PLC. The firm never had a CEO duality and there is a clear separation of roles. Moreover, the firm maintained at least one independent director in the last 10 years. The Return on Assets and Return on Equity was found to be a mean of 87.70% and 43.55% respectively. The overall performance of Unilever PLC remained optimal in the last 10 years. However, the board characteristics were not significantly associated to the performance (ROA and ROE). Limitations: There is a major limitation in this research and that is of the limited amount of data. We only assessed the data of last 10 years and that could have underestimated the association between board characteristics on corporate performance of Unilever PLC. Originality: The paper is a right step to add to the literature on corporate performance in the UK. Further research is needed with larger sample size and including more than one corporates to determine the impact of board characteristics on corporate performance.

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How to cite this paper

The Impact of Board Characteristics on Corporate Performance: A Case of Unilever PLC

How to cite this paper: Tingjuan Wang. (2023) The Impact of Board Characteristics on Corporate Performance: A Case of Unilever PLC. Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science7(8), 1648-1654.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jhass.2023.08.031