IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ausman/v43y2018i1p3-26.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Board independence and the variability of firm performance: Evidence from an exogenous regulatory shock

Author

Listed:
  • Ron Bird

    (Waikato Management School, The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand; The Investment Management Research Centre, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia)

  • Peng Huang
  • Yue Lu

    (Waikato Management School, The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand)

Abstract

We use the 2003 NYSE and NASDAQ listing rules for board independence as an exogenous shock to estimate the causal relation between board independence and the variability of firm performance. Using a difference-in-difference approach, we find that non-compliant firms without a majority of independent directors observe a larger decrease in the variability of firm performance than compliant firms. In particular, board independence is negatively associated with the variability of (1) monthly stock returns, (2) ROA, (3) Tobin’s Q, (4) analyst forecast inaccuracy, (5) accounting accruals, (6) extraordinary items, (7) capital expenditures, (8) cash holdings and (9) the frequency of acquisition activities. We conclude that increased board independence weakens the CEO’s power over the board and restrains corporate risk-taking; thus, decisions made by firms with more independent boards are less extreme, resulting in less variability of firm performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Ron Bird & Peng Huang & Yue Lu, 2018. "Board independence and the variability of firm performance: Evidence from an exogenous regulatory shock," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 43(1), pages 3-26, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ausman:v:43:y:2018:i:1:p:3-26
    DOI: 10.1177/0312896217708227
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0312896217708227
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0312896217708227?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vidhi Chhaochharia & Yaniv Grinstein, 2009. "CEO Compensation and Board Structure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(1), pages 231-261, February.
    2. Lixiong Guo & Ronald W. Masulis, 2015. "Board Structure and Monitoring: New Evidence from CEO Turnovers," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 28(10), pages 2770-2811.
    3. Michael C. Jensen, 2010. "The Modern Industrial Revolution, Exit, and the Failure of Internal Control Systems," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 22(1), pages 43-58, January.
    4. Milton Harris & Artur Raviv, 2008. "A Theory of Board Control and Size," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(4), pages 1797-1832, July.
    5. Johann Peter Murmann & Deepak Sardana, 2013. "Successful entrepreneurs minimize risk," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 38(1), pages 191-215, April.
    6. Fahlenbrach, Rüdiger & Low, Angie & Stulz, René M., 2010. "Why do firms appoint CEOs as outside directors?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 12-32, July.
    7. Emma L. Schultz & David T. Tan & Kathleen D. Walsh, 2010. "Endogeneity and the corporate governance - performance relation," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 35(2), pages 145-163, August.
    8. Anzhela Knyazeva & Diana Knyazeva & Ronald W. Masulis, 2013. "The Supply of Corporate Directors and Board Independence," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 26(6), pages 1561-1605.
    9. Sah, Raaj Kumar & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1986. "The Architecture of Economic Systems: Hierarchies and Polyarchies," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(4), pages 716-727, September.
    10. Eli Bartov & Lucile Faurel & Steven Cahan, 2016. "Sarbanes–Oxley Act and patterns in stock returns around executive stock option exercise disclosures," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 56(2), pages 297-332, June.
    11. Renée B. Adams & Daniel Ferreira, 2007. "A Theory of Friendly Boards," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(1), pages 217-250, February.
    12. Burak Güner, A. & Malmendier, Ulrike & Tate, Geoffrey, 2008. "Financial expertise of directors," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 323-354, May.
    13. Hardjo Koerniadi & Chandrasekhar Krishnamurti & Alireza Tourani-Rad, 2014. "Corporate governance and risk-taking in New Zealand," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 39(2), pages 227-245, May.
    14. Eitan Goldman & Jörg Rocholl & Jongil So, 2009. "Do Politically Connected Boards Affect Firm Value?," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(6), pages 2331-2360, June.
    15. Hermalin, Benjamin E & Weisbach, Michael S, 1998. "Endogenously Chosen Boards of Directors and Their Monitoring of the CEO," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(1), pages 96-118, March.
    16. Jones, Jj, 1991. "Earnings Management During Import Relief Investigations," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 193-228.
    17. Cheng, Shijun, 2008. "Board size and the variability of corporate performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 157-176, January.
    18. Renée B. Adams & Heitor Almeida & Daniel Ferreira, 2005. "Powerful CEOs and Their Impact on Corporate Performance," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 18(4), pages 1403-1432.
    19. Adams, Renée B. & Ferreira, Daniel, 2009. "Women in the boardroom and their impact on governance and performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 291-309, November.
    20. Degeorge, Francois & Patel, Jayendu & Zeckhauser, Richard, 1999. "Earnings Management to Exceed Thresholds," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 72(1), pages 1-33, January.
    21. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1993. "Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 3-56, February.
    22. Katherine Guthrie & Jan Sokolowsky & Kam‐Ming Wan, 2012. "CEO Compensation and Board Structure Revisited," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(3), pages 1149-1168, June.
    23. Peter Kien Pham & Jo-Ann Suchard & Jason Zein, 2011. "Corporate governance and alternative performance measures: evidence from Australian firms," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 36(3), pages 371-386, December.
    24. Stephen Gray & Iman Harymawan & John Nowland, 2016. "Political and government connections on corporate boards in Australia: Good for business?," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 41(1), pages 3-26, February.
    25. Raaj K. Sah & Joseph E. Stiglitz, 1991. "The Quality of Managers in Centralized Versus Decentralized Organizations," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(1), pages 289-295.
    26. Duchin, Ran & Matsusaka, John G. & Ozbas, Oguzhan, 2010. "When are outside directors effective?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(2), pages 195-214, May.
    27. Fama, Eugene F, 1980. "Agency Problems and the Theory of the Firm," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 88(2), pages 288-307, April.
    28. Benjamin E. Hermalin & Michael S. Weisbach, 2003. "Boards of directors as an endogenously determined institution: a survey of the economic literature," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 9(Apr), pages 7-26.
    29. Coles, Jeffrey L. & Daniel, Naveen D. & Naveen, Lalitha, 2008. "Boards: Does one size fit all," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 329-356, February.
    30. Bhagat, Sanjai & Bolton, Brian, 2008. "Corporate governance and firm performance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 257-273, June.
    31. James S. Linck & Jeffry M. Netter & Tina Yang, 2009. "The Effects and Unintended Consequences of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on the Supply and Demand for Directors," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(8), pages 3287-3328, August.
    32. Roberta Romano, 2004. "The Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Making of Quack Corporate Governance," Yale School of Management Working Papers amz2653, Yale School of Management, revised 01 Jul 2005.
    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. Guy Schofield, 2020. "Evidence of governance arbitrage by private equity sponsors," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(S1), pages 971-1005, April.
    2. Bansal, Shashank & Thenmozhi, M., 2020. "Does concentrated founder ownership affect board independence? Role of corporate life cycle and ownership identity," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    3. Chien-Nan Chen & Chengli Tien & Bernard Gan, 2019. "The postentry performance of business groups’ new venture affiliates," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 44(2), pages 325-343, May.
    4. Yensen Ni & Yirung Cheng & Yulu Liao & Paoyu Huang, 2022. "Does board structure affect stock price overshooting informativeness measured by stochastic oscillator indicators?," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(2), pages 2290-2302, April.
    5. Martina K Linnenluecke & Mauricio Marrone & Abhay K Singh, 2020. "Conducting systematic literature reviews and bibliometric analyses," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 45(2), pages 175-194, May.
    6. Sujuan Xie & Yue Xu & Yamin Zeng & Junsheng Zhang, 2019. "Ultimate parent board reform and corporate overinvestment: a quasi‐natural experiment study," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 58(5), pages 1469-1501, March.

    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. Tran, Hai & Turkiela, Jason, 2020. "The powers that be: Concentration of authority within the board of directors and variability in firm performance☆," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    2. Zinat S. Alam & Mark A. Chen & Conrad S. Ciccotello & Harley E. Ryan, 2018. "Board Structure Mandates: Consequences for Director Location and Financial Reporting," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(10), pages 4735-4754, October.
    3. Renee B. Adams & Benjamin E. Hermalin & Michael S. Weisbach, 2010. "The Role of Boards of Directors in Corporate Governance: A Conceptual Framework and Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(1), pages 58-107, March.
    4. Bill Francis & Iftekhar Hasan & Qiang Wu, 2015. "Professors in the Boardroom and Their Impact on Corporate Governance and Firm Performance," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 44(3), pages 547-581, September.
    5. Sila, Vathunyoo & Gonzalez, Angelica & Hagendorff, Jens, 2016. "Women on board: Does boardroom gender diversity affect firm risk?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 26-53.
    6. Berger, Allen N. & Kick, Thomas & Schaeck, Klaus, 2014. "Executive board composition and bank risk taking," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 48-65.
    7. Etienne Redor, 2016. "Board attributes and shareholder wealth in mergers and acquisitions: a survey of the literature," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 20(4), pages 789-821, December.
    8. Wintoki, M. Babajide & Xi, Yaoyi, 2019. "Friendly directors and the cost of regulatory compliance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 112-141.
    9. Drobetz, Wolfgang & von Meyerinck, Felix & Oesch, David & Schmid, Markus, 2014. "Board Industry Experience, Firm Value, and Investment Behavior," Working Papers on Finance 1401, University of St. Gallen, School of Finance, revised Dec 2015.
    10. Masulis, Ronald & Ruzzier, Christian & Xiao, Sheng & Zhao, Shan, 2012. "Do Independent Expert Directors Matter?," MPRA Paper 68200, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Nakano, Makoto & Nguyen, Pascal, 2012. "Board size and corporate risk-taking: Further evidence from Japan," MPRA Paper 38990, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Akbar, Saeed & Kharabsheh, Buthiena & Poletti-Hughes, Jannine & Shah, Syed Zulfiqar Ali, 2017. "Board structure and corporate risk taking in the UK financial sector," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 101-110.
    13. Mark Humphery‐Jenner & Emdad Islam & Lubna Rahman & Jo‐Ann Suchard, 2022. "Powerful CEOs and Corporate Governance," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(1), pages 135-188, March.
    14. Jong-Min Kim & Chanho Cho & Chulhee Jun & Won Yong Kim, 2020. "The Changing Dynamics of Board Independence: A Copula Based Quantile Regression Approach," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-21, October.
    15. James, Hui Liang & Ngo, Thanh & Wang, Hongxia, 2021. "Independent director tenure and corporate transparency," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    16. Chenglong Zheng & Roy Kouwenberg, 2019. "A Bibliometric Review of Global Research on Corporate Governance and Board Attributes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-25, June.
    17. Sandra Cavaco & Patricia Crifo & Antoine Rebérioux & Gwenael Roudaut, 2014. "Independent directors: less informed, but better selected? New evidence from a two-way director-firm fixed effect model," Working Papers hal-04141284, HAL.
    18. Lauren Cohen & Andrea Frazzini & Christopher J. Malloy, 2012. "Hiring Cheerleaders: Board Appointments of "Independent" Directors," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(6), pages 1039-1058, June.
    19. Arun Upadhyay, 2014. "Social Concentration on Boards, Corporate Information Environment and Cost of Capital," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(7-8), pages 974-1001, September.
    20. John R. Graham & Sonali Hazarika & Krishnamoorthy Narasimhan, 2011. "Corporate Governance, Debt, and Investment Policy During the Great Depression," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(12), pages 2083-2100, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Board independence; exogenous regulatory shock; firm performance variability;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance

    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:sae:ausman:v:43:y:2018:i:1:p:3-26. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.agsm.edu.au .

    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.