IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibn/ibrjnl/v18y2025i4p54.html

Understanding Determinants of Firm Performance: An Analysis of Non-Financial Factors

Author

Listed:
  • Anna Maria Calce
  • Anna Paola Micheli
  • Hazar Altinbas

Abstract

This study examines the influence of non-financial factors on the performance of 303 Italian small and medium-sized enterprises over the period 2012-2021. The analysis employs a panel data model with random effects. Performance indicators (ROA, ROE, EBIT, EBITDA and CFOR) are regressed on the variables of interest (firm age, gender of the direct manager, ownership structure and religiosity). Control variables include firm-specific financial data; sectoral dummy variables are used to account for industry effects. Ownership structure has a significant positive impact on firm performance, especially in terms of ROA and EBIT. Firm age shows a negative relationship with EBIT. The gender of the direct manager exhibits a marginal impact on ROA, while religiosity does not significantly influence any of the performance indicators. For managers, these findings highlight the importance of carefully balancing ownership structure to optimize performance while avoiding the risks associated with excessive concentration. Furthermore, while certain non-financial factors like firm age and manager gender may influence performance, their impact appears context-dependent and may not be as significant as previously thought. This study provides empirical evidence on the impact of non-financial factors on firm performance in the context of Italian SMEs. The results underscore the complexity of these relationships and the need for further research to explore the contextual factors that may moderate their impact.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna Maria Calce & Anna Paola Micheli & Hazar Altinbas, 2025. "Understanding Determinants of Firm Performance: An Analysis of Non-Financial Factors," International Business Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 18(4), pages 1-54, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:ibn:ibrjnl:v:18:y:2025:i:4:p:54
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ibr/article/download/0/0/51995/56605
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ibr/article/view/0/51995
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chrisostomos Florackis, 2008. "Agency costs and corporate governance mechanisms: evidence for UK firms," International Journal of Managerial Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 4(1), pages 37-59, January.
    2. Chrisostomos Florackis, 2008. "Agency costs and corporate governance mechanisms: evidence for UK firms," International Journal of Managerial Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 4(1), pages 37-59, January.
    3. Claessens, Stijn & Djankov, Simeon, 1999. "Ownership Concentration and Corporate Performance in the Czech Republic," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 498-513, September.
    4. Chen, Zhilan & Cheung, Yan-Leung & Stouraitis, Aris & Wong, Anita W.S., 2005. "Ownership concentration, firm performance, and dividend policy in Hong Kong," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 431-449, September.
    5. McConnell, John J. & Servaes, Henri, 1990. "Additional evidence on equity ownership and corporate value," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 595-612, October.
    6. Chrisostomos Florackis, 2008. "Agency costs and corporate governance mechanisms: evidence for UK firms," International Journal of Managerial Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 4(1), pages 37-59, January.
    7. Kenneth R. Ahern & Amy K. Dittmar, 2012. "The Changing of the Boards: The Impact on Firm Valuation of Mandated Female Board Representation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(1), pages 137-197.
    8. Alberto de Miguel & Julio Pindado & Chabela de la Torre, 2004. "Ownership structure and firm value: new evidence from Spain," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(12), pages 1199-1207, December.
    9. Jose Apesteguia & Ghazala Azmat & Nagore Iriberri, 2012. "The Impact of Gender Composition on Team Performance and Decision Making: Evidence from the Field," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(1), pages 78-93, January.
    10. Muriel Niederle & Lise Vesterlund, 2007. "Do Women Shy Away From Competition? Do Men Compete Too Much?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(3), pages 1067-1101.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mario Daniele Amore & Orsola Garofalo & Alessandro Minichilli, 2014. "Gender Interactions Within the Family Firm," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(5), pages 1083-1097, May.
    2. Emmanuel Chuke Nwude & Musa Sani Zakirai & Comfort Amaka Nwude, 2023. "Ownership Structure and Bank Performance in Emerging Market Economy: Evidence From Nigerian Listed Deposit Money Banks," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    3. Nam Hoai Tran & Chi Dat Le & David McMillan, 2020. "Ownership concentration, corporate risk-taking and performance: Evidence from Vietnamese listed firms," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 1732640-173, January.
    4. Christian Weiss & Stefan Hilger, 2012. "Ownership concentration beyond good and evil: is there an effect on corporate performance?," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 16(4), pages 727-752, November.
    5. Berge, Lars Ivar Oppedal & Juniwaty, Kartika Sari & Sekei, Linda Helgesson, 2016. "Gender composition and group dynamics: Evidence from a laboratory experiment with microfinance clients," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 131(PA), pages 1-20.
    6. Azmat, Ghazala & Petrongolo, Barbara, 2014. "Gender and the labor market: What have we learned from field and lab experiments?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 32-40.
    7. Xu, Weidong & Luo, Zijun & Li, Donghui, 2024. "Investor–firm interactions and corporate investment efficiency: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    8. F. Cappellieri & R. Vinciguerra & A. Ricciardi & M. Pizzo, 2025. "Independent minority directors against self-serving and manipulative practices in non- financial reporting," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 29(2), pages 453-501, June.
    9. Taylan Mavruk & Conny Overland & Stefan Sjögren, 2020. "Keeping it real or keeping it simple? Ownership concentration measures compared," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 26(4), pages 958-1005, September.
    10. Tleubayev, Alisher & Bobojonov, Ihtiyor & Gagalyuk, Taras & Glauben, Thomas, 2022. "Business group affiliation and financial performance in the agricultural sector of transition economies: The case of Russian agroholdings," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 27(2), pages 280-310.
    11. María Consuelo Pucheta-Martínez & Inmaculada Bel-Oms & Gustau Olcina-Sempere, 2018. "Female Institutional Directors on Boards and Firm Value," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 152(2), pages 343-363, October.
    12. Weiß, Christian, 2010. "The Ownership Concentration of Firms: Three Essays on the Determinants and Effects," EconStor Theses, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 30247.
    13. Timothy N. Cason & Lata Gangadharan, 2022. "Gender, Beliefs, and Coordination with Externalities Approach," Purdue University Economics Working Papers 1330, Purdue University, Department of Economics.
    14. Aziz Jaafar & Lynn Hodgkinson & Mao-Feng Kao, 2019. "Ownership Structure, Board of Directors and Firm Performance: Evidence from Taiwan," Working Papers 19011, Bangor Business School, Prifysgol Bangor University (Cymru / Wales).
    15. Jidong Qin & Jiawei Liu & Dan Deng, 2023. "Absence of ultimate controller and investment efficiency: Evidence from China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(6), pages 1-23, June.
    16. Abdelaziz Hakimi & Houssem Rachdi & Rim Ben Selma Mokni & Houda Hssini, 2018. "Do board characteristics affect bank performance? Evidence from the Bahrain Islamic banks," Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business Research, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 9(2), pages 251-272, March.
    17. Ahmad, Sardar & Ullah, Subhan & Akbar, Saeed & Kodwani, Devendra & Brahma, Sanjukta, 2024. "The impact of compliance, board committees and insider CEOs on firm survival during crisis," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    18. Duran, Mihael & Pull, Kerstin, 2014. "Der Beitrag der Arbeitnehmervertreter zur fachlichen und geschlechtlichen Diversitaet von Aufsichtsraeten: Erkenntnisse einer qualitativ-explorativen Analyse (Worker directors and supervisory board di," Industrielle Beziehungen - Zeitschrift fuer Arbeit, Organisation und Management - The German Journal of Industrial Relations, Rainer Hampp Verlag, vol. 21(4), pages 329-351.
    19. Ye, Dezhu & Deng, Jie & Liu, Yi & Szewczyk, Samuel H. & Chen, Xiao, 2019. "Does board gender diversity increase dividend payouts? Analysis of global evidence," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 1-26.
    20. Zhu, Li & Zhou, Tao & Wen, Yufei, 2025. "Tax incentive and stock price crash risk: Evidence from VAT credit refund policy of China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ibn:ibrjnl:v:18:y:2025:i:4:p:54. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Canadian Center of Science and Education (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.