In recent years, particularly following numerous corporate failures, the concept of corporate governance and, more specifically, the assessment of its quality have received increasing attention from researchers and policymakers. Sound corporate governance plays a crucial role in enhancing transparency, accountability, and the sustainability of firms’ performance; therefore, evaluating the quality of corporate governance is essential for all firms, both private and state-owned. In Iran, due to the extensive involvement of the government in economic activities and firm ownership—beyond the provision of public goods and services—the challenge of developing an appropriate model for ranking corporate governance quality in companies owned by various public entities has long existed. This challenge is especially pronounced in companies affiliated with military organizations, given their specific structural and institutional characteristics. Accordingly, the present study aims to design and propose a comprehensive index for ranking corporate governance quality in non-weaponized companies affiliated with a military organization, based on the OECD Corporate Governance Guidelines (2024).



In this study, qualitative content analysis was employed to examine the OECD (2024) guideline. As a result, seven main dimensions, forty sub-dimensions, and 110 indicators for assessing corporate governance quality were identified. Since the relative importance of corporate governance components may vary depending on a country’s institutional, legal, and economic conditions, expert judgment was used to localize the extracted framework. Specifically, the opinions of seven experts in the field of corporate governance were collected, and the weights of the dimensions, sub-dimensions, and indicators were determined using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) combined with direct scoring. The resulting weights serve two main purposes: first, they contribute to the localization of the OECD (2024) guidelines, and second, they enable the development of a governance assessment model tailored to companies affiliated with a military organization.



The results of the final model indicate that “Board Composition and Responsibilities” holds the highest importance with a weight of 0.3083, followed by “Disclosure, Transparency, and Accountability” with a weight of 0.3004. Accordingly, it is recommended that companies affiliated with military organizations place particular emphasis on strengthening board effectiveness and enhancing transparency and information disclosure. Overall, the proposed model enables quantitative and comparative evaluation of corporate governance quality and can serve as a practical tool for managers and supervisory bodies.