Corporate Governance and Profitability: Evidence from Leadership Role Segregation and Gender Diversity in Dubai

Corporate governance plays a vital role in shaping organizational outcomes by aligning stakeholder interests, strengthening accountability, and influencing firm performance. While global research emphasizes the importance of governance reforms, the effects of specific mechanisms such as leadership role segregation and gender diversity remain contested. This study investigates how these two governance attributes affect firm profitability within the Dubai Stock Exchange, an emerging market where governance practices continue to evolve in line with global standards. Using secondary data from 20 listed firms and applying a quantitative research design, the analysis tests the impact of separating the roles of Chief Executive Officer and Chairperson alongside the presence of female directors on boards. Regression results indicate that both governance variables are positively associated with profitability, yet neither achieves statistical significance, and the model demonstrates limited explanatory power. These findings suggest that profitability in Dubai’s listed firms may be driven more by structural, industry-specific, or macroeconomic factors than by the governance mechanisms examined in isolation. The results highlight the need to move beyond binary measurement of governance features, as tokenistic representation or formal structural separation may not capture their substantive impact on firm outcomes. The study contributes to the governance-performance debate by providing context-specific evidence from Dubai, emphasizing that governance reforms must be complemented by broader institutional and organizational conditions to generate measurable improvements in profitability.