Do the institutional environment and types of owners influence the relationship between ownership concentration and board of director independence? An international meta-analysis

Leticia Pérez-Calero, José Manuel Hurtado-González and Félix López-Iturriaga ()

International Review of Financial Analysis, 2019, vol. 61, issue C, 233-244

Abstract: Prior research into the relationship between firm ownership structure and board of director independence has been conducted in a variety of international settings and has led to mixed results. Given this divergence, we meta-analyze 127 studies in order to test whether different types of owners (if a firm's ownership lies mainly in the hands of managers, families or institutions) explain these mixed results. We also examine whether the institutional context (civil, common or emerging legal system) may moderate the relationship between ownership concentration and type of owner and board independence. We find that ownership concentration has a significant negative relation with board independence in common law countries, and when firms are under managerial or family control. In contrast, the relation is positive for firms in civil law countries or for firms owned by institutional investors. Thus, our paper reveals differences in the relation between ownership concentration and board of director independence contingent on type of owner and the institutional context in which the firm operates. Our research has practical implications for practitioners and policy makers, and provides them with certain guidelines aimed at achieving the most efficient design for corporate governance mechanisms.

Keywords: Corporate governance; Ownership structure; Board of directors; Institutional context; Meta-analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057521918300929
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:finana:v:61:y:2019:i:c:p:233-244

DOI: 10.1016/j.irfa.2018.11.014

Access Statistics for this article

International Review of Financial Analysis is currently edited by B.M. Lucey

More articles in International Review of Financial Analysis from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().