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Introduction
The topic of corporate governance (CG) has attracted multidisciplinary researchers from fields such as law, political sciences, accounting, finance, economics and even philosophy. In a corporate setting, the implementation of an effective CG system is not as easy as it may appear, with ongoing challenges to maintaining it and reaching the desired goals. The existence of CG governs the relationships between the management and the firm's stakeholders (Gebba, 2015). As a result, the importance of CG and the awareness about it were rising in the last few decades with the aim to protect and secure all stakeholders interests while ensuring the company's economic efficiency and leading to sustainability (Crowther, 2008; Grant, 2003). Under CG practices, there lie several categories and components which usually indicate the level of CG in a company. One such component is the ownership structure which mainly focuses on the board of directors' practices and its established committees.
On the other hand, the ownership structure only does not guarantee an effective CG system. This requires three distinct characteristics in a company: accountability, responsibility and transparency. The presence of these traits is the duty of the management, the board of directors and the audit committee toward the investors and all other stakeholders. While many interrelate CG with ethics and morals (Trong, 2012), it is crucial to have an internationally acceptable guidelines and ethical behaviors upon building up a CG system. For a business to be considered ethical, it has to balance between both pursuing profit and fulfilling social responsibilities. In this sense, morals and standards may vary according to culture and region. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, 85 percent of business entities are small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and family-owned enterprises (FOEs) (Saïdi, 2004), where CG practices have yet not reached a saturated level, and are still challenged by both external and internal factors. In such a significant region, SMEs seek to achieve and sustain innovation capabilities through the combination of inventive entrepreneurial processes which lead to the creation of new economic value.
SMEs play a major role for economies both locally and globally. It is important to mention that these enterprises can contribute to the economic growth, employment, development, production and innovation (Cansiz, 2008). With their...