The determinants of corporate board size and composition: An empirical analysis

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Boone, Audra L.; Field, Laura Casares; Karpoff, Jonathan M.; Raheja, Charu G.
• 署名单位: University of Washington; University of Washington Seattle; University of Kansas; Pennsylvania Commonwealth System of Higher Education (PCSHE); Pennsylvania State University; Pennsylvania State University - University Park; Wake Forest University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-405X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2006.05.004
• 发表日期: 2007
• 页码: 66-101
• 关键词: CORPORATE BOARDS; IPO; BOARD SIZE; Board independence

摘要

Using a unique panel dataset that tracks corporate board development from a firm's IPO through 10 years later, we find that: (i) board size and independence increase as firms grow and diversify over time; (ii) board size-but not board independence-reflects a tradeoff between the firm-specific benefits and costs of monitoring; and (iii) board independence is negatively related to the manager's influence and positively related to constraints on that influence. These results indicate that economic considerations-in particular, the specific nature of the firm's competitive environment and managerial team-help explain cross-sectional variation in corporate board size and composition. Nonetheless, much of the variation in board structures remains unexplained, suggesting that idiosyncratic factors affect many individual boards' characteristics. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.