1 FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: THE PORTUGUESE REALITY. Pedro Vaz 1 (email: pedro.vaz@braviclasse.pt) Elísio Brandão 2 (email: ebrandao@fep.up.pt) University of Minho, School of Economics and Management, Department of Management Campus de Gualtar, 4700 Braga, Portugal University of Porto, Faculty of Economics, Department of Management Rua Dr. Roberto Frias 4200-464 Porto, Portugal Topics of the Conference: Ethics and Corporate Governance. ABSTRACT The goal of this paper is to study the factors that can influence the corporate governance, in particular, the impact of the chief executive office, CEO, in the performance of the firm. Firstly, we present the contributions of two schools, some studies concerning the concept of firms, their ownership and control as well as studies related with the impact of the CEO in the performance of corporate. Secondly, we analyse, from a statistical point of view, a sample of 5283 Portuguese firms belonging at 24 industries (3 digit, sic codes) and use the Wasserman, Nohria and Anand (2001) methodology for the statistic treatment of data. The research found evidence supporting the hypotheses that the CEO is a factor that has an impact on the performance. He has an higher impact when the industry’s level of growth and debts are more important and where the level of concentration is lower. KEY WORDS: Corporate Governance, Performance, CEO. 1. INTRODUCTION One of the subjects of great actuality in the domain of the corporate finances says respect to the corporate governance. The main objective of this study is to analyse the factors that influence the government of the companies, in particular the influence of the chairman of the board of administration, CEO, in the performance of the firm. For Montgomery and Kaufman (2003) the three components of the triangle (shareholders, CEO, and Board of administration) lead to mutual responsibilities and the exchange of information. The decision of the SEC, to demand to the North American CEO that personally certify the declarations of its companies who contain financial objectives, seem to strengthen the direction of CEO’s responsibility. The defenders of the call conventional management, supported, among others, for Thomas (1988), claim that the CEO can have a significant influence in the performance of the companies. From its position they elaborate the strategy, the organisational structure and the culture of the company. Making it, they are capable to detect the chances and to use to advantage them in benefit of the companies. On the other hand, Hannan and Freeman (1989) among others, argue that the CEOs are so constrained by its half involving that its capacity to influence the performance of the companies is small. The culture of the company, the structure of the industry sector and the capital assets are inertia forces that reduce the capacity of the director to adopt the measures that have an impact in the company. With the present study it is intended to analyse, with a sample of Portuguese companies, the impact of the CEOs in the performance of the companies. We desire to know what are the industries that have a more important impact in function of the level of growth, the debts and the concentration. Taking regular intervals of time, for the same sample, we analyse the behaviour of the CEO of the Portuguese corporates through the time. Our study, following the line of research of Wasserman, Nohria and Anand (2001), is focused in the circumstances where the CEO is a differentiated factor, that is, is has an important role in the performance of the corporate. The results, of the CEO, change in function of the characteristics of the industries. This perspective is fit in the "boarding of the contingencies" that strengthens for deciding the conflict between 1 Research Student at University of Minho. 2 Full Professor of Finance, at University of Porto, Faculty of Economics and Management