Role of corporate governance in quick response to Covid-19 to improve SMEs’ performance: evidence from an emerging market

This paper aims to evaluate the role of corporate governance on performance of the small and medium-sized enterprises by exploring the mediating role of social responsibility engagement and environmental responsibility engagement between corporate governance and firm performance in the context of an emerging market. The paper follows a quantitative approach. The study sample was composed of 495 responses covering top executives, managers, and experts. The Analysis of a moment structures (AMOS version 20) was used to analyze the small and medium-sized enterprises data in an emerging economy in Southeast Asia in the year 2021. Our findings revealed that corporate governance has a significant and positive relationship with firm performance, social responsibility engagement and environmental responsibility engagement. In addition, social responsibility engagement and environmental responsibility engagement are found to mediate the relationship between corporate governance and firm performance. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first research that explores the mediating role of social responsibility engagement and environmental responsibility engagement between corporate governance and firm performance for the small and medium-sized enterprises. This study has novel contributions by providing important insights into the effective corporate governance mechanism and how corporate governance contributes to improving firm performance towards sustainability through engaging in social and environmental responsibility. Additionally, its application to food the small and medium-sized enterprises in the current context of an emerging economy in Southeast Asia reinforces the originality of this study. This study contributions are of great interest to academics, experts, business practitioners, and policymakers.