Corporate governance and performance: evidence from the Italian listed local public utilities (2000-08)

Despite a lively research commitment, convergent results on the relationship between corporate governance and performance are still missing in the literature to date. This is particularly true for those firms which, either fully or partially, changed their nature from public to private in the last few years. Thus, this article aims at contributing to fill this gap by presenting the findings of a multiple case study analysis conducted on the Italian local public utilities listed at the Milan Stock Exchange in the years between 2000 and 2008. The ongoing privatization process of these firms allows this sample to be considered as a particularly interesting research vehicle. From our analysis, the main results are not wholly conclusive. This seems to support those theses that argue that understanding the real impact of corporate governance practices on the performance of firms still needs further improvement. The article is primarily intended for board members, managers, and scholars who want to enhance public governance, strategy, and decision making by improving the comprehension of the possible relationships among the boards’ structure and composition, governance practices and corporate performance.