British Journal of Arts and Social Sciences ISSN: 2046-9578, Vol.9 No.I (2012) ©BritishJournal Publishing, Inc. 2012 http://www.bjournal.co.uk/BJASS.aspx 1 Corporate Governance and Performance of Saudi Arabia Listed Companies Yahya Ali Al-Matari Faculty of Accountancy, Universiti Utara Malaysia matariyahya@yahoo.com Dr. Abdullah Kaid Al-Swidi College of Arts & Sciences, Universiti Utara Malaysia swidi@uum.edu.my, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Faudziah Hanim Bt Fadzil Faculty of Accountancy, Universiti Utara Malaysia fhanim@uum.edu.my Abstract: This study aims to provide a concise view of the background of Saudi Arabia‟s legal system, important regulations and monitoring policies related to the corporate governance followed by the Saudi government to enhance the attractiveness of the business environment. In so doing, this study attempted to provide an overview on corporate governance in the emerging markets and more specifically in Saudi Arabia. Additionally, this study has shed lights on the main monitoring devices which play a significant role in regulating and developing the Saudi business environment. The focus was on some corporate governance mechanisms that might affect firm performance including board composition (BODCOM), CEO duality (DUAL), board size (BSIZE), audit committee independence (ACIND), audit committee activities (ACMEET) and audit committee size (ACSIZE). Keywords: Corporate governance, firm performance, emerging countries, Saudi Arabia.