Journal of Academic and Business Ethics Corporate governance and firms, page 1 Corporate governance and firms’ financial performance Sekhar Muni Amba New York Institute of Technology, Bahrain ABSTRACT In the light of corporate financial scandals, there is an ever increasing attention on corporate governance issues. As the investors look for emerging economies to diversify their investment portfolios to maximize returns they are equally concerned about governance factors to minimize risks in these economies. This paper examines the impact of corporate governance variables on firms’ financial performance. Influence of corporate governance variables CEO duality, Chairman of Audit Committee, Proportion of Non-executive Directors, Concentrated Ownership structure, Institutional Investors, Gearing Ratio on firms’ financial performance “Return on Assets” is researched using the firms traded in Bahrain bourse. This research finds that corporate governance variables do influence firms’ performance. CEO duality, proportion of non-executive directors and leverage has negative influence and board member as chair of audit committee, proportion of institutional ownership has positive influence on firms’ financial performance Keywords: Corporate governance, financial performance, Bahrain Copyright statement: Authors retain the copyright to the manuscripts published in AABRI journals. Please see the AABRI Copyright Policy at http://www.aabri.com/copyright.html .