This book expands on the literature on the characteristics of management boards by especially focusing on family-listed and family-controlled companies, as they are ideal for studying board heterogeneity. It uses specific multidimensional indices and in-depth econometric analysis to introduce new variables, such as international experience, that represent a source of competitive advantage for firms in today’s globalized world. In addition, by examining the heterogeneity ratio and the representation of independent and family directors, the book demonstrates how family-controlled firms use independent directors to import their heterogeneous expertise.
The book makes a threefold contribution: for regulators, it offers suggestions on improving the quality of reporting in family-controlled firms; for researchers, it demonstrates the importance of including directors’ characteristics apart from the firm-specific factors in their analyses; and for practitioners, it shows that selecting directors with specific characteristics can have a substantial impact on firms’ performance.
Author(s): Bruno Buchetti
Series: Contributions to Finance and Accounting
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 145
City: Cham
Preface
Contents
About the Author
List of Figures
List of Tables
Chapter 1: Introduction
Reference
Chapter 2: Board Composition and Its Heterogeneity
2.1 The Board of Directors
2.2 Agency Theory and Resource Dependency
2.3 Potential Benefits and Potential Costs Related to Heterogeneity
2.4 Board Heterogeneity: A Literature Review
2.4.1 The First Dimension: The Role of Gender
2.4.2 The Second Dimension: Social Aspects
2.4.3 The Third Dimension: Multidimensional Indexes and Overall Heterogeneity
2.5 Conclusions
References
Chapter 3: Directors´ Characteristics and Firm´s Performance: Research Design and Hypotheses
3.1 Family Firm: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Main Theories
3.2 Why Do We Study the Relation Between Directors´ Characteristics and Family-Controlled Firms´ Performance?
3.3 Research Design and Hypotheses
3.4 Definition of Family Firms
3.5 The Italian Family Firms
3.5.1 Geographical Distribution
3.5.2 Sectors and Industrial Districts
3.6 Conclusions
References
Chapter 4: Family Firms´ Board Characteristics
4.1 The Report on Corporate Governance and the Company´s Ownership Structure
4.2 Board Characteristics
4.2.1 Gender, Age, and Nationality
4.2.2 Level of Education
4.2.3 Professional Experience
4.2.3.1 Technical Professional Experience
4.2.3.2 General Professional Experience
4.2.4 International Experience
4.2.5 Family Members and Independent Directors
4.2.6 Lead Independent Director (LID)
4.2.7 Other Directors´ Characteristics
4.3 Index Construction
4.3.1 The Social Heterogeneity Index
4.3.2 The Occupational Heterogeneity Index
4.3.3 The Overall Heterogeneity Index
4.3.4 The Global Heterogeneity Index
4.4 Conclusions
References
Chapter 5: Econometric Analysis
5.1 Dependent Variable: Performance
5.2 Control Variables
5.3 The Baseline Model
5.4 Heterogeneity Index Analysis
5.4.1 Robustness Test
5.5 Independent Directors and Heterogeneity Ratio
5.6 ``Mandatory´´ and ``Not Mandatory Variables´´
5.7 Conclusions
References
Chapter 6: Conclusions
Reference
Appendices
Appendix A: Index Calculation and Variables
Appendix B: Variable Descriptions and Source
Appendix C: Descriptive Statistics
Appendix D: Correlation Matrix
Appendix E: Variable Impact on Performance
Appendix F: Scheme Proposed
References
