Corporate governance compliance to the Zimbabwe National Code of Corporate Governance (ZIMCODE) and performance of listed companies in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The research sought to examine the compliance of listed companies to the new Zimbabwe National Code of Corporate Governance (ZIMCODE) which was instituted in April 2015. Corporate governance factors such as the board composition, board evaluation, duality of roles and the issue of board committees were highlighted.The mixed-method approach was used for gathering data with the questionnaire as the major instrument that was administered to the selected 25 listed companies. The study established that of all the corporate governance factors highlighted in the study, only board evaluation had a strong correlationship with the performance of companies. All other variables such as the role of the board, duality of roles and board committees showed weak linkages to the organisational performance. The study also found out that companies were in compliance with best practices from other codes apart from ZIMCODE. The research showed that our own code was not in much use due to poor launch and promotion. It was recommended that listed companies should adoptZIMCODE, devise an implementation plan for full adoption of the code since its inception.It was also highlighted that it was important for future studies to focus on how other control variables such as political, economic, social, ecological and technological factors affect the implementation of good corporate governance practices and compliance in listed companies.