Abstract

This paper aims to review systematically the existing studies of corporate governance that positively impact organisational performance in Africa and put forward theories, research methods, topics, and variables that emerge from the review.  The systematic literature review is based on 32 peer-reviewed journal articles (and a further 12 thesis publications from Google Scholar Database focused on corporate governance, board characteristics, and ownership structure and Thesis publications produced by universities in Africa and in the diaspora). This study's conceptual framework is based on agency theory. The majority of results show a positive correlation between corporate governance and organisational performance with agency theory being the most utilised theory of choice. This paper undertakes a significant thorough systematic review of corporate governance with firm performance literature. It gives a 20-year review with a reference index from 2003 to 2022, useful for both academics and professionals. This study acts on recommendation to expand geographical spread across all continents to cover corporate governance area and to improve studies related to corporate governance and its impact on firm performance. Lastly, it is recommended that more studies that look at the impact of the corporate governance and firm performance should be performed especially in the public sector.

Key words: Corporate governance, business administration, firm performance; company performance, ownership structure; Africa.