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This study examines the relationship between board composition and firm value, and the extent to which this relationship may be affected by a company’s investment opportunity set. There is little research that examines this issue, particularly for the New Zealand market. Of the research that exists, and generally for the research that examines how board composition affects firm performance, the findings have been mixed. Using a randomly chosen sample, which improves the external validity of results from prior studies, we find that board composition of high growth option firms is positively related to firm value, and this relationship is maintained when more refined measures that proxy the characteristics of outside directors (such as tenure of outside directors, the level of outside director equity ownership, the number of other board positions held by outside directors, and the total proportion of non‐executive directors, including grey directors) are recognised.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it aims to investigate the dynamic impact of board composition (board size, board independence and board diversity) on independent corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices (marketplace, environment, community and workplace). Second, it tends to examine the mutual effect of board composition and CSR practices on organizational returns (return on assets and Tobin’s Q) of 631 Malaysian PLCs listed on Bursa Malaysia during 2006-2017.

The dynamic model (system GMM) provided by Arellano and Bond (1991) and Arellano and Bover (1995) is used for estimations that control for potential dynamic endogeneity, reverse causality, unobserved heterogeneity and simultaneity problems.

Findings reveal weak linkage between board composition and CSR practices where only board diversity is found to be positively linked to marketplace practices of CSR. Further, the mutual impact of board composition and CSR practices on organizational returns suggests board size be positive and board independence to be negative with Tobin’s Q. Board diversity is negative with ROA and positive with Tobin’s Q. Conversely, CSR practices indicate marketplace practices are positive and community practices are negative with Tobin’s Q, environment practices are insignificant with performance, whereas workplace practices are positive with ROA and negative with Tobin’s Q.

This research is practically considerable for Bursa Malaysia, Securities Commission Malaysia, policymakers, stakeholders, investors and managers. For academia, the theoretical linkages between agency theory, resource dependence theory, resource-based view and stakeholder theory are highlighted. Moreover, methodological underpinnings are also novel for academicians as well as for practitioners.

The paper uncovers multiple aspects: first, it elaborates the dynamic relationship between board composition and CSR practices; second, it examines the combined effect of board composition and CSR practices on company’s accounting and market gains; finally, the study controls for dynamic endogeneity that is the main econometric problem for CG-CSR-performance relationships.

This study aims to examine whether CEO duality affects the association between board gender composition, dividend policy and cost of debt (COD).

The S&P 1500 firms’ data for this study were collected from the Bloomberg professional service terminal for the period 2010-2015.

The results show that board gender composition positively impacts both a firm’s propensity to pay dividends and the level of payouts. However, this positive association is only present in firms with CEO duality. The authors find no significant association between board gender composition and COD, but when the authors split the sample into firms with and without CEO duality, the authors find a negative association in firms without CEO duality.

The empirical results highlight important issues for policymakers, managers and investors. The study provides positive feedback on corporate governance rejuvenation efforts that seek to engender and advocate the appointments of female directors to corporate boards. Market participants, such as financial analysts and lenders, could recognize the empirical specifics related to the influence of board gender composition on firms’ dividend policy and COD in the context of CEO duality.

This study fills an important gap in the literature on the relationship between board gender composition and its relation with dividend policy and COD.

This paper aims to investigate the association between the composition of boards of directors and the choice of external auditor among companies listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) in 2013.

Consistent with prior research, audit quality is represented by two proxies, namely, a Big 4 and Non-Big 4 audit firm. Independence, diversity, interlocks, size and role duality are used as proxies for board composition. To accommodate the dichotomous dependent variable (auditor choice), a logistic regression model is used to test the hypothesized associations between board composition and auditor choice.

After controlling for firm-specific characteristics, results show that independence, diversity and size are statistically significant and increase the likelihood that a KSE-listed company selects a high-quality (Big 4) audit firm. Role duality is also statistically significantly but decreases the likelihood of choosing a Big 4 audit firm.

This research has implications for regulators, shareholders, boards and academics. The paper underlines the importance of the composition of the board in increasing the likelihood of hiring a high-quality audit firm. Regulators can draw upon these results when assessing the effectiveness of corporate governance mechanisms.

This paper is among the first to study the association between auditor choice and board composition using data from the frontier market of Kuwait, thus responding to the call for empirical research into the issue in less-developed markets. Overall, it sheds light on the effectiveness of board composition and provides empirical evidence that it is an important element in the choice of auditors. The findings indicate that board composition may be a mechanism that can promote demand for high audit quality.

The purpose of the paper is to examine the gender composition and structure of the board of directors in not‐for‐profit organisations and their relation to firm‐level entrepreneurship.

Data were collected through a survey sent to Swedish riding schools. The paper focuses on not‐for‐profit associations and the analysis is based on 60 respondents. The data were analysed by multivariate methods.

The overall gender composition of boards had no influence on firm‐level entrepreneurship. However, a high proportion of women in powerful positions were found to have a positive influence on one of the study's two dimensions of firm‐level entrepreneurship, i.e. strategic opportunism. No influence concerning gender in powerful positions was found on risk taking, the other dimension of firm‐level entrepreneurship.

The attention to gender composition not only focuses on the board at large, but also highlights the specific positions of the chairperson, secretary and treasurer in the board structure. Another valuable insight concerns firm‐level entrepreneurship, here treated as a two‐dimensional concept, consisting of strategic opportunism and risk taking, which finds support in the analysis. Further, the empirical data were collected from an industry that includes a high proportion of women on the boards, i.e. the Swedish riding school industry. The study contributes to the debate concerning the gender composition on the board of directors where a high proportion of women in powerful positions is positively related with strategic opportunism.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the gender composition of the board of directors of Malaysian initial public offering (IPO) companies. This study also examines the business case for having women on boards.

Using a sample of 228 IPO companies that went public during the period 1999‐2006, this study tracks the changes in the gender composition of these companies prior to the IPO year, IPO year and three‐year post‐IPOs. This study also tracks the changes in the gender composition between the pre‐IPO period and some 5 to 12 years later after the IPOs for a subsample of 89 companies that appear as top 500‐companies on the Malaysian Stock Exchange (Bursa Malaysia) in 2011. The compounded buy‐and‐hold returns method is used to measure the post‐IPO company performance.

This study finds that female representation as board of directors in 228 Malaysian companies prior to the IPO is only about 8 percent. This percentage is almost similar for the subsequent four years (IPO year and three‐year post‐IPOs). By using a subsample of 89 companies that appear as top 500‐companies in 2011, the percentage of female directors increases only 2.5 percent from the pre‐IPO year. However, the increment is not statistically significant. An extended analysis on the business case for women on boards reveals that greater percentage of female representation leads to lower long run underperformance. This underperformance is much lower for companies having more foreign ethnic female representation.

The results of this study suggest that there is still a long way to realize the benefits of having female directors in Malaysian companies. Malaysia needs to create an environment that realizes the benefits of having women in the top management levels.

This research contributes to the existing literature on gender especially in the context of IPO companies. This is the first comprehensive study on gender composition using Malaysian IPOs data. Prior studies on gender mainly focus on established listed companies.

Public pension plans in the U.S. are seriously underfunded, especially following the financial market crisis of 2008-2009 which resulted in large investment losses. However, funding levels vary widely across plans. Pension boards of trustees make key management decisions in pension systems and these decisions have significant effects on funded levels, yet our empirical knowledge of board management is limited. This study explores the effect of board composition on pension funding levels. Existing theoretical debates lead to differing expectations, and previous studies have mixed results. Our research uses a panel data set of large public pension plans from 2001-2009. We also collect data for pension board composition from this time period. We find that increasing political appointees and employee members on the board increases the funding performance of the pension system.

This study aimed to investigate the impact of the board composition on financial performance in the restaurant industry from a stewardship theory perspective.

The composition of board was measured as the ratio of inside and outside directors. Firm performance was operationalized as return on assets (operational performance) and Tobin’s q (market-based performance). Panel regression analysis tested the research hypotheses.

Using data from 25 restaurant firms from 2007 to 2013, the study found an insignificant impact of board composition on operational performance. However, a higher proportion of inside board members increases market-based performance. A higher proportion of outside board members decreases market-based performance.

Supporting the basic tenets of stewardship theory, restaurant companies may consider changing the current practice of having a super-majority of outside directors and increase the inside board members. Because inside board member have greater experience with the organization and the industry, they have a better understanding of the status quo and are better able to respond to opportunities and threats in the environment.

Considering the scarcity of research on how the board composition affects firm performance in the hospitality context, the present study is a forerunner in its exploration of the impact of inside and outside directors on restaurant firms’ performance.

The fundamental objective of this study is to contribute to the debate by empirically examining the determinants of board size and its composition from a small and developing country perspective.

The paper uses a quantitative approach based on secondary data from firms listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange. Panel data multiple regressions within both fixed and random effects techniques estimations were carried out.

Board size and its composition are a function of firm and industrial characteristics. Specific findings are that, while firm level risk has a positive relationship with board size, CEO tenure has a negative correlation with board size; and that firms with larger institutional shareholding employ less outside directors

A study of this nature requires a large sample base. It is therefore obvious that sample size was the main limitation of the study. Though, this limitation does not compromise on the validity of our findings, study findings and its general interpretation should be done with some degree of caution.

Since, most of the studies in this area have been largely theoretical and have concentrated in developed countries, this paper makes an important contribution by looking at the issue empirically from a small and developing country perspective.

The authors examined the association between accountancy board composition in the continental United States and indicators of the supply of new accounting graduates. In particular, the authors studied the association between the number of CPAs as well as the number of college educators that serve on State Accountancy Boards (SAB) and two key indicators of the future supply of future accounting professionals – number of CPA exam takers and number of accounting graduates from AACSB-accredited accounting programs. The descriptive statistics by the authors show 30% of jurisdictions have at least one accounting PhD who serves on the board, and on average 75.6% of board members are CPAs. The authors found that both the number of CPAs and the number of accounting educators on SABs are positively associated with the number of CPA exam takers as well as the number of accounting graduates from AACSB accounting programs. This suggests that accountancy board composition might be an important factor in influencing the supply of future accounting professionals. This research suggests that more strategic focus on the composition of accountancy boards is one approach that might be used to increase the supply of future accounting professionals. This observation is important as the supply of accounting graduates has declined recently and the states, NASBA, the AICPA, accounting programs and firms are keenly interested in increasing the supply of new accounting professionals in the United States.