This study examines the association between directors’ remuneration, board independence, directors’ educational level and firm performance of 100 Malaysian listed family firms. Data has been collected through annual reports in Bursa Malaysia’s database from 2013 till 2015 with a total sample data of 300. The results indicated that the performances of family-owned companies' were influenced by the implementation of corporate governance in their management processes. Hence, the result reveals a significant association between directors’ remuneration and family-owned companies' performance. However, the findings found that the presence of independent directors and educational qualification of the directors portrayed significant negative association with the firm’s performance. The presence of the independent directors in the company and the directors’ educational level could not improve the monitoring of the management activities and company’s performance. The findings of this study also found that director remuneration has the strongest influence on firm performance in family-owned companies. This research makes a number of contributions. This study documents empirical evidence on the positive association between corporate governance mechanisms and monitoring of Malaysian family firms. Besides, the knowledge acquired from this study will help to close the gap in corporate governance and finance teaching at university level in Malaysia. The information provided in this study also highlights how governance issues are useful and can be incorporated into consultancy work.
