How outside directors’ human and social capital create value for corporate international investments

Grounded in theories of resource dependence, vicarious and superstitious learning, information processing, and board group literature, this study examines how outside directors’ human and social capital affect the value of corporate foreign direct investments. We employ the event study approach to examine 1210 international investment cases of 836 US firms over a 13-year period. We find significant but distinct non-linear impacts of board members’ human capital (U-shaped effect) and social capital (inverted U-shaped effect). The quality of board capital is also influential, as demonstrated by the effect of directors’ prior foreign investment performance in addition to size and degree of internationalization of interlocked companies. The performance measures of both abnormal announcement returns and operating ROA yield similar results. Our findings highlight the importance of incorporating factors related to board human and social capital for a more comprehensive analysis of the contribution of outside directors to a firm’s international success.