Do Board of Directors and Shariah Supervisory Board Characteristics Affect Performance?

This paper aims to examine the impact of Board of Directors (BOD) and Shariah Supervisory Board (SSB) characteristics on the performance of Malaysian and Indonesian Takaful Operators (TOs). We manually collected data on BOD characteristics (size, independence of directors and women's representation) and SSB characteristics (size, women's representation, and doctoral degrees) from the annual reports of 27 TOs in Malaysia and Indonesia from 2015 to 2022. This study uses panel data analysis as its empirical approach. Specifically, the study uses generalised least square (GLS) random-effect regression. The study highlights several interesting findings: (1) larger board size and the presence of female directors impact performance negatively; (2) board independence increases performance; (3) However, large SSBs tend to increase performance; and (4) Female scholars in the SSB negatively impact the performance of the TOs.