Abstract:
The concept of corporate governance is one of the issues that have attracted
the attention of researchers and organization around the world. Corporate
governance is measured by board size, ownership structure, board
independence and CEO duality. The purpose of this study is to identify the
impact of corporate governance on firms’ dividend policy for the listed S&P
SL20 companies in the Colombo Stock Exchange. Twenty listed S&P SL20
companies were analyzed for a period of six years from 2010 to 2015. Data is
collected from the annual reports of the companies. Statistical Package for
Social Science (SPSS 19.0) is used to analyze and evaluate the collected data.
Univariate, Multiple regression and correlation analyses are used to explore
the association between board size, ownership structure, board independence
and CEO duality and firm dividend policy. A positive impact is found between
CEO duality and firm dividend policy and negative impact is found between
ownership structure and firm dividend policy. The impact of board size and
board independence deemed to be insignificant. In addition, it is shown that
firm size and profitability explain firm dividend policy. The paper supports
the fact that corporate governance is relevant in determining the dividend
policy for listed S&P SL20 companies in the Colombo Stock Exchange.
