IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jbfnac/v27y2000i9-10p1311-1342.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Increasing Use of Non‐Executive Directors: Its Impact on UK Board Structure and Governance Arrangements

Author

Listed:
  • Steven Young

Abstract

The last decade has seen a sharp increase in the number of non‐executive directors (NEDs) on the boards of UK listed firms. Using a sample period spanning the publication of the Cadbury Report (1992), this paper evaluates the implications of this increase. The main findings can be summarised as follows. First, the increased demand for NEDs has been more pronounced for firms classified as having proportionately too many executive board members in the pre‐Cadbury period. Secondly, the probability of compliance with the Cadbury Report's proposal for a minimum of three NEDs is positively related to the magnitude of the expected net benefits of adding further non‐executives to the board. Finally, there is little evidence that the increased use of NEDs caused firms to make costly adjustments to other elements of their control systems in an attempt to re‐equilibrate their governance portfolios. These findings are consistent with claims that the recent trend towards greater NED representation on UK boards may have helped to raise general governance standards.

Suggested Citation

  • Steven Young, 2000. "The Increasing Use of Non‐Executive Directors: Its Impact on UK Board Structure and Governance Arrangements," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(9‐10), pages 1311-1342, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jbfnac:v:27:y:2000:i:9-10:p:1311-1342
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-5957.00358
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5957.00358
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1468-5957.00358?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. David Hillier & Patrick McColgan, 2006. "An Analysis of Changes in Board Structure during Corporate Governance Reforms," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 12(4), pages 575-607, September.
    2. Steve Lin & Peter F. Pope & Steven Young, 2003. "Stock Market Reaction to the Appointment of Outside Directors," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(3‐4), pages 351-382, April.
    3. Guest, Paul M., 2008. "The determinants of board size and composition: Evidence from the UK," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 51-72, February.
    4. Henry He Huang & Chong Wang & Hong Xie & Jian Zhou, 2021. "Independent director attention and the cost of equity capital," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(7-8), pages 1468-1493, July.
    5. García Lara, Juan Manuel & García Osma, Beatriz & Mora, Araceli & Scapin, Mariano, 2017. "The monitoring role of female directors over accounting quality," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 651-668.
    6. Ongsakul, Viput & Treepongkaruna, Sirimon & Jiraporn, Pornsit & Uyar, Ali, 2021. "Do firms adjust corporate governance in response to economic policy uncertainty? Evidence from board size," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    7. Charlie Weir & Oleksandr Talavera & Alexander Muravyev, 2011. "The Return on Human Capital: the Case of UK Non-executive Directors that are also Executive Directors," University of East Anglia Applied and Financial Economics Working Paper Series 029, School of Economics, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK..
    8. Irene Wei Kiong Ting & Wei-Kang Wang & Wen-Min Lu & Yun-Jung Chen, 2021. "Do female directors will have impact on corporate performance?," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 611-631, April.
    9. Bogdan Aurelian Mihail & Dalina Dumitrescu, 2021. "Corporate Governance from a Cross-Country Perspective and a Comparison with Romania," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-13, December.
    10. Ian Gregory-Smith & Steve Thompson & PeterW. Wright, 2009. "Fired or Retired? A Competing Risks Analysis of Chief Executive Turnover," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(536), pages 463-481, March.
    11. Chii-Shyan Kuo & Shih-Ti Yu, 2014. "Remuneration Committee, Board Independence and Top Executive Compensation," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-17, April.
    12. Achraf Haddad, 2022. "Effect of board quality on the financial performance of conventional and Islamic banks: international comparative study after the Subprime crisis," Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 13(2), pages 399-449, June.
    13. Charlie Weir & David Laing, 2003. "Ownership structure, board composition and the market for corporate control in the UK: an empirical analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(16), pages 1747-1759.
    14. Pietro Marchetti & Valeria Stefanelli, 2009. "Does the compensation level of outside director depend on its personal profile? Some evidence from UK," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 13(4), pages 325-354, November.
    15. Goh, Lisa & Gupta, Aditi, 2016. "Remuneration of non-executive directors: Evidence from the UK," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 379-399.
    16. Shivan Sarpal, 2015. "Determinants of Corporate Board Independence: Empirical Evidence from India," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 40(1-2), pages 52-74, February.
    17. Sheila Ellwood & Javier Garcia-Lacalle, 2015. "The Influence of Presence and Position of Women on the Boards of Directors: The Case of NHS Foundation Trusts," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 130(1), pages 69-84, August.
    18. Paul Gregg & Sarah Jewell & Ian Tonks, 2005. "Executive Pay and Performance in the UK 1994-2002," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 05/122, The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK.
    19. Charlie Weir & Oleksandr Talavera & Alexander Muravyev, 2011. "Performance effects of appointing other firms' executive directors," Working Papers 2011_12, Durham University Business School.
    20. Eduard Alonso-Paulí, 2007. "The Adoption of a Code of Best Practice: Incentive Implications," Working Papers 07.18, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics.
    21. M. Ameziane Lasfer, 2006. "The Interrelationship Between Managerial Ownership and Board Structure," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(7‐8), pages 1006-1033, September.
    22. Saibal Ghosh, 2011. "Firm ownership type, earnings management and auditor relationships: evidence from India," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 26(4), pages 350-369, April.
    23. Germain, Laurent & Galy, Nadine & Lee, Wanling, 2014. "Corporate governance reform in Malaysia: Board size, independence and monitoring," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 126-162.
    24. Waseem Ullah & Shahid Ali & Sajid Mehmood, 2017. "Impact of Excess Control, Ownership Structure and Corporate Governance on Firm Performance of Diversified Group Firms in Pakistan," Business & Economic Review, Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar, Pakistan, vol. 9(2), pages 49-72, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jbfnac:v:27:y:2000:i:9-10:p:1311-1342. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0306-686X .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.