The compliance of the Corporate Governance Code with firm value: Evidence from Russian public companies

Achieving the national goal of increasing stock market capitalization to 66% of GDP by 2030 (RF President Decree No. 309 of May 7, 2024) requires identifying the drivers of company value growth. However, there is currently no empiricallybased consensus on what specific corporate governance practices recommended by the Code are instrumental in enhancing valuation. This study aims to analyze the relationship between the factors of corporate governance quality and firm value. The methodological framework combines agency and resource-based theories. The key research methods are descriptive and correlation analyses. The evidence base covers Spencer Stuart’s reports for 2015–2021 and Moscow Exchange data. The study focuses on panel data reflecting board characteristics of 60 publicly traded Russian companies (291 observations). The results show that the presence of an ESG committee, gender diversity, and the number of scheduled meetings have a statistically significant positive relationship with company value. Conversely, the number of extraordinary meetings and high director turnover displayed a negative correlation with company value. Meanwhile, the analysis of the characteristics such as the number of independent directors, the chairman’s tenure, the average age of directors, and the presence of an external board evaluation revealed no statistically significant relationship with firm value. Thus, the research indicates that attaining the national goal of market capitalization growth requires not the formal implementation of all conventional practices, but a focus on those that have proven effective in the Russian context. The findings can be used to manage company value, improve the quality of corporate governance, and can be considered in a new version of the Code.