The impact of board characteristics on corporate investment decisions: an empirical study

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Kwame Agyei-Mensah

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of board characteristics on firms’ investment decisions. Design Methodology Approach The study used data sourced from annual reports of firms listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange from 2014 to 2018. Descriptive analysis was performed to provide the background statistics of the variables examined. This was followed by a regression analysis which forms the main data analysis. Findings The multiple regression analysis results indicated that the proportion of independent directors and financial experts on the board are negatively related to firm investment. These findings imply that independent directors and financial experts on the board can help firms reduce overinvestment and improve investment efficiency. Originality Value The extant literature shows that the board of directors are an effective mechanism to reduce agency problems in firm decisions and operating performance. However, there has been little research on the role of the board of directors in corporate investment policy.

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grant Richardson ◽  
Grantley Taylor ◽  
Roman Lanis

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the impact of women on the board of directors on corporate tax avoidance in Australia. Design/methodology/approach The authors use multivariate regression analysis to test the association between the presence of female directors on the board and tax aggressiveness. They also test for self-selection bias in the regression model by using the two-stage Heckman procedure. Findings This paper finds that relative to there being one female board member, high (i.e. greater than one member) female presence on the board of directors reduces the likelihood of tax aggressiveness. The results are robust after controlling for self-selection bias and using several alternative measures of tax aggressiveness. Research limitations/implications This study extends the extant literature on corporate governance and tax aggressiveness. This study is subject to several caveats. First, the sample is restricted to publicly listed Australian firms. Second, this study only examines the issue of women on the board of directors and tax aggressiveness in the context of Australia. Practical implications This research is timely, as there has been increased pressure by government bodies in Australia and globally to develop policies to increase female representation on the board of directors. Originality/value This study is the first to provide empirical evidence concerning the association between the presence of women on the board of directors and tax aggressiveness.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Afef Khalil ◽  
Imen Ben Slimene

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the Board of Directors’ characteristics and their impact on the financial soundness of Islamic banks. Design/methodology/approach Regression analysis is applied to test the impact of the Board of Directors’ characteristics on the financial soundness of Islamic banks, using a panel data set of 67 Islamic banks covering 20 countries from 2005 to 2018. The Z-score indicator is used to evaluate the Islamic banks’ soundness. To check the robustness of the results, this paper uses other dependent variables (CAMEL) than the Z-score. Findings The main results show that the presence of an independent non-executive director negatively impacts the financial soundness of Islamic banks, while the chief executive officer duality practice has a positive effect on it. Other characteristics of the Board of Directors do not significantly impact the financial soundness of Islamic banks (foreign director, institutional director, chairman with a Shari’ah degree, interlocked chairman and the Board of Directors’ size). Practical implications This study aims to fill the gaps in the literature that discuss the Board of Directors’ role in corporate governance and its impact on the financial soundness of Islamic banks. In other words, it shows the role played by the Board of Directors and improves the knowledge of the corporate governance-financial soundness relationship. Plus, managers, investors and regulators may gain evocative insights, particularly those looking to improve their Islamic banks’ soundness by restructuring their boards’ composition. Originality/value This study sheds new light on the literature on Islamic banking by clarifying the relationship between the Board of Directors and the financial soundness of Islamic banks. Contrary to previous research, this paper uses an additional hypothesis stating that a chairman with a Shari’ah degree (Fiqh Muamalt) has a positive impact on the financial soundness of Islamic banks.


2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 653-675 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vicente Pina ◽  
Lourdes Torres

Purpose Online transparency has become a tool to increase legitimacy and trust in governments. The purpose of this paper is to study the online transparency of Spanish Central Government agencies and analyze whether their corporate governance (CG) structures influence their online transparency. Design/methodology/approach The information used for building an online transparency index and about the board of directors has been collected from the websites of the 168 agencies and from their statutes and activity reports. Ordinary least squares analysis is used. Based on a previous literature review and the requirements of the EU Directive and Spanish legislation, 108 items included in the websites have been analyzed. Findings The average information displayed through the website agencies is significantly less than the information considered as relevant in previous literature and in the Spanish legislation. The highest values are presented by the technical dimensions and the lowest by the organizational/political dimension. The presence of independent directors and women on the boards of directors are revealed as the most important explanatory factors of online transparency. Practical implications Practical implications to improve online transparency are related to the organizational/political dimension – including the positions and CVs of members of governing bodies, minutes, etc. and to the presence of independent directors and, to a lesser extent, of women, on the board of directors. Originality/value The contribution of this paper is the identification of some online transparency determinants in public entities under the same general legal framework. This is the first paper that analyzes the relationship between online transparency and CG in public agencies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-327
Author(s):  
Noha Elberry ◽  
Khaled Hussainey

PurposeThe authors examine the impact of corporate investment efficiency on corporate voluntary disclosure for a sample of UK non-financial companies.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use a sample of FTSE All-Share firms for the period of 2007–2014. Disclosure scores are collected from Corporate Financial Information Environment (CFIE). They follow Biddle et al. (2009) and Chen et al. (2011) in measuring corporate investment efficiency.FindingsThe authors find that high level of performance-related disclosure is associated with high level of corporate investment efficiency, while high level of good news information is associated with low level of corporate investment efficiency. They also find evidence on a bidirectional relation between disclosure and corporate investment efficiency.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors’ findings would be of importance to stakeholders and corporations. Stakeholders' investment decisions could be facilitated by understanding the disclosures provided by their firms and how these firms' performance is presented. Corporations become aware of the language which must be used to signal their performance.Practical implicationsCorporations become aware of the language which must be used in their disclosures. As firms may reflect their efficient investments but not in the form of good news in order to avoid revealing their competitive advantage to competitors.Originality/valueThis paper adds to disclosure studies by introducing a new variable, corporate investment efficiency, as a determinant of corporate disclosure practice.


2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-9
Author(s):  
Enrique Ogliastri

Abstract In this issue we present seven articles originally from Canada, Chile, Colombia and Spain. The articles are of diverse subjects: first, some herd behaviour of the institutional investors in Chile; second, the impact of growth strategies and the company's resources on the business growth method; third, the effectiveness of the norms on the directives of the remuneration committee of the board of directors on the appropriate remuneration of the directors; fourth, the incidence of the behaviour of the stakeholders in the failure of the companies; fifth, barriers and options to increase the female workforce in mining companies; sixth, the factors that impulse the exporting behaviour of companies; and seventh, the impact of the design of a product in the buying intention of the consumers. All the articles, including those written in Spanish or Portuguese, are available in English. Resumen En este número presentamos siete artículos provenientes de Canadá, Chile, Colombia y España. Los artículos tienen temáticas muy diversas: 1) algunos comportamientos en manada de los inversores institucionales en Chile; 2) El impacto de la estrategia de crecimiento y de los recursos de la empresa en el método de crecimiento empresarial; 3) La efectividad de las normas sobre la Comisión de Remuneraciones de los Consejos directivos sobre la remuneración apropiada de los consejeros; 4) La incidencia del comportamiento de los grupos involucrados (stakeholders) en el fracaso de las empresas; 5) Barreras y opciones para incrementar la fuerza laboral femenina en las empresas mineras; 6) Los factores que impulsan el comportamiento exportador de las empresas; y 7) El impacto del diseño de un producto en la intención de compra de los consumidores. Todos los artículos, aún los escritos en español o portugués, están disponibles en inglés.


2021 ◽  
Vol 292 ◽  
pp. 02049
Author(s):  
Gao Ruirui

The board characteristics are an important factor affecting the growth of the company. This paper selects the data of A-share listed companies in the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges during the five-year period from 2014 to 2019, and analyzes whether the board characteristics will affect the growth of the company from a dynamic perspective. The research found that: ① the scale of the board of a listed company has an inverted U-shaped relationship with the company’s growth; ② the proportion of independent directors has a positive correlation with the company’s growth; ③ the director’s salary has a positive correlation with the company’s growth.


2019 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Quoc Trung Tran

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine whether independent directors reduce corporate overinvestment and improve investment efficiency in an emerging market. Design/methodology/approach First, the author developed a research model in which corporate investment is a function of Tobin’s Q, the proportion of independent directors in the board and an interaction between them. Second, the author divided the full sample into groups of firms with a low- and high-financial constraint to compare the effects of independent directors between financially unconstrained and constrained firms. Findings With a full sample of 1,281 observations collected from 193 firms listed in Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange during the period from 2009 to 2017, the author find that the proportion of independent directors is negatively related to firm investment but its interactive term with Tobin’s Q is positively related to corporate investment. These findings imply that independent directors can help firms reduce overinvestment and improve investment efficiency. Moreover, the research findings indicate that these effects of independent directors are stronger for financially constrained firms. Originality/value The extant literature shows that independent directors are an effective mechanism to reduce agency problems in firm decisions and operating performance. However, there has been no research on the role of independent directors in corporate investment policy.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Afef Khalil

Purpose The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between the board of directors (BODs) and the Shariah board (SB) and assess its impact on the financial soundness of Islamic banks (IBs). Design/methodology/approach The authors use a regression model to test the effects of the relationship between the BOD and the SB on the financial soundness of IBs by applying a panel data set of 61 IBs, covering 18 countries from 2008 to 2014. The dependent variable is the Z-score indicator. To test the robustness of the results, the authors use dependent variables other than the Z-score [A rating of Capital adequacy (C), Asset quality (A), Management (M), Earnings (E), Liquidity (L), and Sensitivity (S) (CAMELS)] for 2018. Findings The results show that meetings between directors and SB members significantly reduce the financial soundness of IBs. The relationship between the BOD and the SB increases conflicts of interest and agency costs. However, a representation of the SB at the BOD meetings and vice versa does not affect financial soundness. The Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions and the Islamic Financial Services Board corporate governance standards do not require the presence of the SB representative at the BOD meetings or vice versa, which justifies the results. Practical implications This study attempts to fill gaps in the literature by investigating the impact of meetings between the SB and the BOD on the financial soundness of IBs across the world. The results suggest that the BOD’s frequent interference in the affairs of the SB can have adverse effects on IBs and should be avoided. Originality/value The authors depart from the previous literature by using three new characteristics that link the BOD to the SB. Methodologically, the authors use three new measures to evaluate this relationship and its effect on the financial soundness of IBs. This study is unique because it explores the comparative impacts of the presence of a SB representative at the BOD meetings and a director at the SB meetings and meetings between the two governing boards of IBs.


2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 725-741
Author(s):  
Usman Muhammad ◽  
Sana Saleem ◽  
Anwar ul Haq Muhammad ◽  
Faiq Mahmood

Purpose This study aims to examine the impact of stock mispricing on corporate investment decisions by taking the sample of non-financial firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange during the period of 2008-2014. Design/methodology/approach To measure the mispricing, this study decomposes the market-to-book ratio into mispricing and growth components and measures corporate investment by capital expenditures. Fixed and random effect panel regression models are used to estimate the results. Findings Results of the study show that firms issue overvalued equity to finance the capital expenditures. Consistent with other studies, the relationship between stock mispricing and investment is more prominent in the financially constrained firms. In addition, cash flow investment sensitivity is higher in financially unconstrained firms. Practical implications Nonetheless, the results give important implications to the Pakistan Stock Market on how the mispricing enhances the welfare by relaxing the financial constraints and allowing the managers to make investment in profitable projects that otherwise go non-funded. These findings have interesting implications for further research in the literature of finance and also help in economic policy-making. Originality/value This study finds the impact of stock mispricing on corporate investment decisions by considering the role of market timing in the context of Pakistan.


2019 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 250-265
Author(s):  
Kavitha D. ◽  
Nandagopal R. ◽  
Uma Maheswari B.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the impact of board characteristics such as size, independence, busyness and duality on the extent of discretionary disclosures of listed Indian firms.Design/methodology/approachA disclosure index with 110 items was constructed to assess the discretionary disclosures in the annual reports of listed firms. The study measured disclosure using 1,024 firm-year observations over 8 years from 2009 to 2016. Board characteristics such as size, independence, busyness and duality have been used in the study as indicators of corporate governance.FindingsThe results indicate that while the proportion of independent directors positively impacts the extent of discretionary disclosures, boards with duality and the busyness of the director have a negative impact. The size of the board does not significantly impact the extent of disclosures.Research limitations/implicationsThis study examines the discretionary disclosures made only in the annual reports. Future studies could examine information disclosed in other media. Moreover, this study uses an un-weighted self-constructed disclosure index, which is subject to its inherent limitations.Originality/valueThis study has examined the impact of the “busyness” of the director on the extent of disclosures. This variable has not been explored in prior studies. The significance of the variable indicates that the number of directorships held impacts the efficiency with which a director performs his/her role in the board. The study reiterates the need for firms and policymakers to focus on improving board independence and to move away from leadership structures with duality.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document