IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/bracre/v53y2021i5s0890838920300433.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does boardroom nationality affect the performance of UK insurers?

Author

Listed:
  • Adams, Mike
  • Baker, Paul L.

Abstract

Drawing on the board capital literature, we use a panel data design to investigate the effect of boardroom nationality on the profitability and solvency of property-casualty insurers operating in the United Kingdom (UK). We find that boardroom nationality influences corporate outcomes depending on the financial aspects being measured. For example, North American directors are linked with profitable outcomes, while European directors tend to be associated with better solvency. This reflects differences between the shareholder value corporate culture in North America and stakeholder approaches more common in Europe. Our results could help insurers, regulators, and others (e.g., investors) to better understand the potential performance implications of the appointment of directors of different nationality.

Suggested Citation

  • Adams, Mike & Baker, Paul L., 2021. "Does boardroom nationality affect the performance of UK insurers?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(5).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:bracre:v:53:y:2021:i:5:s0890838920300433
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bar.2020.100923
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0890838920300433
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.bar.2020.100923?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Manthos D. Delis & Chrysovalantis Gaganis & Iftekhar Hasan & Fotios Pasiouras, 2017. "The Effect of Board Directors from Countries with Different Genetic Diversity Levels on Corporate Performance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(1), pages 231-249, January.
    2. Masulis, Ronald W. & Wang, Cong & Xie, Fei, 2012. "Globalizing the boardroom—The effects of foreign directors on corporate governance and firm performance," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 527-554.
    3. Jermias, Johnny & Gani, Lindawati, 2014. "The impact of board capital and board characteristics on firm performance," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 135-153.
    4. Lars Oxelheim & Trond Randøy, 2005. "The Anglo-American financial influence on CEO compensation in non-Anglo-American firms," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 36(4), pages 470-483, July.
    5. Schmid, Stefan & Altfeld, Frederic & Dauth, Tobias, 2018. "Americanization as a driver of CEO pay in Europe: The moderating role of CEO power," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(4), pages 433-451.
    6. Chia-Ling Ho & Gene C. Lai & Jin-Ping Lee, 2013. "Organizational Structure, Board Composition, and Risk Taking in the U.S. Property Casualty Insurance Industry," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 80(1), pages 169-203, March.
    7. Anant K. Sundaram & Andrew C. Inkpen, 2004. "The Corporate Objective Revisited," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(3), pages 350-363, June.
    8. Veprauskaitė, Elena & Adams, Mike, 2013. "Do powerful chief executives influence the financial performance of UK firms?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 229-241.
    9. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    10. Saunders, Anthony & Strock, Elizabeth & Travlos, Nickolaos G, 1990. "Ownership Structure, Deregulation, and Bank Risk Taking," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(2), pages 643-654, June.
    11. Hooghiemstra, Reggy & Hermes, Niels & Oxelheim, Lars & Randøy, Trond, 2019. "Strangers on the board: The impact of board internationalization on earnings management of Nordic firms," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 119-134.
    12. Kurt A. Desender & Ruth V. Aguilera & Mónica Lópezpuertas-Lamy & Rafel Crespi, 2016. "A clash of governance logics: Foreign ownership and board monitoring," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 349-369, February.
    13. Chizema, Amon, 2010. "Early and late adoption of American-style executive pay in Germany: Governance and institutions," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 9-18, January.
    14. Yaping Gong, 2006. "The impact of subsidiary top management team national diversity on subsidiary performance: Knowledge and legitimacy perspectives," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 46(6), pages 771-790, December.
    15. Ian P. Dewing & Peter O. Russell, 2006. "Corporate Governance – Regulation and Reform: the actuarial governance of UK life insurers," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(3), pages 172-180, May.
    16. van Veen, Kees & Marsman, Ilse, 2008. "How international are executive boards of European MNCs? Nationality diversity in 15 European countries," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 188-198, June.
    17. Wang, Tawei & Hsu, Carol, 2013. "Board composition and operational risk events of financial institutions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 2042-2051.
    18. Mike Adams & Vineet Upreti & Jing Chen, 2019. "Product-market strategy and underwriting performance in the United Kingdom’s property–casualty insurance market," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(11), pages 1012-1031, July.
    19. Franklin Allen & Elena Carletti & Robert Marquez, 2015. "Stakeholder Governance, Competition, and Firm Value," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 19(3), pages 1315-1346.
    20. Lai, Jung-Ho & Chen, Li-Yu & Song, Sangcheol, 2019. "How outside directors’ human and social capital create value for corporate international investments," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 93-106.
    21. Joseph Calandro & Scott Lane, 2002. "The Insurance Performance Measure: Bringing Value To The Insurance Industry," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 14(4), pages 94-99, January.
    22. Steve M. Miller, 2011. "Managerial Discretion and Corporate Governance in Publicly Traded Firms: Evidence From the Property–Liability Insurance Industry," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 78(3), pages 731-760, September.
    23. Philip Hardwick & Mike Adams & Hong Zou, 2011. "Board Characteristics and Profit Efficiency in the United Kingdom Life Insurance Industry," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(7-8), pages 987-1015, September.
    24. Kees Van Veen & Janine Elbertsen, 2008. "Governance Regimes and Nationality Diversity in Corporate Boards: A Comparative Study of Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(5), pages 386-399, September.
    25. Wintoki, M. Babajide & Linck, James S. & Netter, Jeffry M., 2012. "Endogeneity and the dynamics of internal corporate governance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(3), pages 581-606.
    26. Frijns, Bart & Dodd, Olga & Cimerova, Helena, 2016. "The impact of cultural diversity in corporate boards on firm performance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 521-541.
    27. Turo-Kimmo Lehtonen & Jyri Liukko, 2011. "The Forms and Limits of Insurance Solidarity," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 103(1), pages 33-44, April.
    28. Winfried Ruigrok & Simon Peck & Sabina Tacheva, 2007. "Nationality and Gender Diversity on Swiss Corporate Boards," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(4), pages 546-557, July.
    29. Noel O’Sullivan & Stephen Diacon, 1999. "Internal and External Governance Mechanisms: evidence from the UK insurance industry," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(4), pages 363-373, October.
    30. David Webb & Andrew Pettigrew, 1999. "The Temporal Development of Strategy: Patterns in the U.K. Insurance Industry," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 10(5), pages 601-621, October.
    31. Shin, Donghoon & Seidle, Russell & Okhmatovskiy, Ilya, 2016. "Making the foreign familiar: The influence of top management team and board of directors characteristics on the adoption of foreign practices," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(6), pages 937-949.
    32. Nickell, Stephen J, 1981. "Biases in Dynamic Models with Fixed Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(6), pages 1417-1426, November.
    33. Greve, Peder & Biemann, Torsten & Ruigrok, Winfried, 2015. "Foreign executive appointments: A multilevel examination," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(4), pages 674-686.
    34. David Mayers & Clifford W. Smith, 2010. "Compensation and Board Structure: Evidence From the Insurance Industry," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 77(2), pages 297-327, June.
    35. Lars Oxelheim & Aleksandra Gregorič & Trond Randøy & Steen Thomsen, 2013. "On the internationalization of corporate boards: The case of Nordic firms," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 44(3), pages 173-194, April.
    36. Mayers, David & Smith, Clifford W, Jr, 1981. "Contractual Provisions, Organizational Structure, and Conflict Control in Insurance Markets," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(3), pages 407-434, July.
    37. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    38. Gaganis, Chrysovalantis & Hasan, Iftekhar & Papadimitri, Panagiota & Tasiou, Menelaos, 2019. "National culture and risk-taking: Evidence from the insurance industry," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 104-116.
    39. Martin Eling & Sebastian D. Marek, 2014. "Corporate Governance and Risk Taking: Evidence From the U.K. and German Insurance Markets," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 81(3), pages 653-682, September.
    40. Estélyi, Kristína Sághy & Nisar, Tahir M., 2016. "Diverse boards: Why do firms get foreign nationals on their boards?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 174-192.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Jason Brennan, 2023. "Diversity for Justice vs. Diversity for Performance: Philosophical and Empirical Tensions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 187(3), pages 433-447, October.
    2. Omer Saeed Habtoor, 2022. "Board Attributes and Bank Performance in Light of Saudi Corporate Governance Regulations," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-27, September.
    3. Badar Alshabibi & Shanmuga Pria & Khaled Hussainey, 2022. "Nationality Diversity in Corporate Boards and Tax Avoidance: Evidence from Oman," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-12, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Schmid, Stefan & Roedder, Felix, 2021. "Gaijin invasion? A resource dependence perspective on foreign ownership and foreign directors," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(6).
    2. Schmid, Stefan & Altfeld, Frederic & Dauth, Tobias, 2018. "Americanization as a driver of CEO pay in Europe: The moderating role of CEO power," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(4), pages 433-451.
    3. Ilya R. P. Cuypers & Charmi Patel & Gokhan Ertug & Jiatao Li & Youtha Cuypers, 2022. "Top management teams in international business research: A review and suggestions for future research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(3), pages 481-515, April.
    4. Kravchenko Grygorii, 2021. "International Experts’ Influence on Company Internationalization," Journal of Management and Business Administration. Central Europe, Sciendo, vol. 29(4), pages 57-90, December.
    5. Bennouri, Moez & Chtioui, Tawhid & Nagati, Haithem & Nekhili, Mehdi, 2018. "Female board directorship and firm performance: What really matters?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 267-291.
    6. Adams, Mike & Jiang, Wei, 2016. "Do outside directors influence the financial performance of risk-trading firms? Evidence from the United Kingdom (UK) insurance industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 36-51.
    7. Hooghiemstra, Reggy & Hermes, Niels & Oxelheim, Lars & Randøy, Trond, 2019. "Strangers on the board: The impact of board internationalization on earnings management of Nordic firms," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 119-134.
    8. Dorota Dobija & Karolina Puławska, 2022. "The influence of board members with foreign experience on the timely delivery of financial reports," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 26(1), pages 287-313, March.
    9. Areneke, Geofry & Kimani, Danson, 2019. "Value relevance of multinational directorship and cross-listing on MNEs national governance disclosure practices in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Nigeria," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 54(4), pages 285-306.
    10. Geofry Areneke & Abongeh A. Tunyi, 2022. "Chairperson and CEO foreignness and CG quality of emerging markets MNCs: Moderating role of international board interlocks," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(3), pages 3071-3092, July.
    11. Rekha Handa, 2021. "Does Presence of Foreign Directors Make a Difference? A Case of Indian IPOs," Business Perspectives and Research, , vol. 9(1), pages 111-127, January.
    12. Muellner, Jakob & Klopf, Patricia & Nell, Phillip C., 2017. "Trojan Horses or Local Allies: Host-country National Managers in Developing Market Subsidiaries," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 306-325.
    13. Afzali, Haaron & Martikainen, Minna & Oxelheim, Lars & Randoy, Trond, 2020. "On the Role of Internationalization of Firm-Level Corporate Governance – The Case of Audit Committees," Working Paper Series 1370, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    14. Luo, Yi & Ma, Jian & Wang, Yu & Ye, Aishan, 2022. "Board internationalization and corporate social responsibility," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    15. Ponomareva, Yuliya & Uman, Timur & Bodolica, Virginia & Wennberg, Karl, 2022. "Cultural diversity in top management teams: Review and agenda for future research," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(4).
    16. Talavera, Oleksandr & Yin, Shuxing & Zhang, Mao, 2018. "Age diversity, directors' personal values, and bank performance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 60-79.
    17. Stefan Schmid & Tobias Dauth, 2012. "Internationale Diversität im Top-Management — Eine empirische Analyse der DAX-30-Unternehmen," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 64(7), pages 772-802, November.
    18. Alharbi, Rana & Elnahass, Marwa & McLaren, Josie, 2022. "Women directors and market valuation: What are the “Wonder Woman” attributes in banking?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    19. Thams, Yannick & Kelley, Keith & Von Glinow, Mary Ann, 2018. "Foreigners in the boardroom: The implications of attitudes toward immigration and conservatism in firms' sub-national context," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 8-18.
    20. Talavera, Oleksandr & Yin, Shuxing & Zhang, Mao, 2016. "Managing the diversity: board age diversity, directors’ personal values, and bank performance," MPRA Paper 71927, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    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:eee:bracre:v:53:y:2021:i:5:s0890838920300433. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/the-british-accounting-review .

    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.