Purpose – In spite of an abundance of corporate governance literature across the world, the Botswana corporate sector is lacking. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship among the ownership structure, board characteristics and financial performance to determine the role of corporate governance in the performance behavior of companies listed in such an emerging market in Africa as Botswana.

Design/methodology/approach – Ordinary least square (OLS) models are applied to Botswana Stock Exchange listed firms over the period 2000-2007 to determine the role of corporate governance in the performance behavior of companies listed in an emerging market.

Findings – The empirical evidence shows distinct nature of corporate governance behavior among alternative performance measures used, in particular, between accounting-based/hybrid and market-based measures.

Practical implications – Such diversified findings provide the policy-makers with insights to take appropriate measures on corporate governance and stock market development in order to ensure their efficiency.

Originality/value – The approach of this study is different from the other available literature as it captures all types of shareholdings together in addition to other corporate governance and firm-specific predictable variables.