THE INFLUENCE OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE IN PERFORMANCE AND CAPITAL STRUCTURE OF COMPANIES LISTED IN BOVESPA

Abstract

The corporate governance relates to the management of an organization and becomes the target of interest of entrepreneurs when they realize that their practices contribute to solve conflicts of interests between directors and shareholders. This study aims to evaluate whether the adoption of corporate governance practices changes the capital structure and the companies' performance. The sample totalizes 84 companies holders of shares negotiated in BOVESPA and listed in the N1, N2 and NM. The research uses tests of differences to identify changes in structure and performance, and apply panel data regression with the purpose of assessing whether corporate governance influences variations in capital structure and the companies' performance. The independent variables are given by the index of governance, percentage of ordinary shares of the controlling shareholder, percentage of shares of the majority shareholder, the percentage of ordinary shares of the five majority shareholders and the independence of the board. The dependent variables include the equity return, stock return and general indebtedness. The result showed a little influence exercised by the independent variables in the dependent variable, thus it cannot be inferred that the corporate governance practices adopted by the companies that joined in N1, N2 and NM have contributed expressively to variations in the performance and the capital structure of the companies, at least within the limits of this sample.