Does the Board of Directors Affect the Extent of Corporate R&D? Evidence from Italian listed companies

Fabrizio Rossi () and Richard Cebula ()
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Fabrizio Rossi: University of Cassino and Southern Lazio

Economics Bulletin, 2015, vol. 35, issue 4, 2567-2580

Abstract: Using a panel dataset for 369 firm-year observations during the period 2005-2013 in the Italian context, we investigate the impact of certain characteristics of corporate boards on the magnitude of corporate Research and Development (R&D). Our findings reveal a negative relationship between R&D and board size on the one hand and between R&D and board ownership on the other hand. Moreover, we find strong evidence of a positive and statistically significant relationship between R&D and independent corporate board directors. In addition, we also find a relationship between R&D and board diversity effect, as measured by women and foreign members on the boardroom. Our study uses multiple econometric models to address endogeneity issues.

Keywords: Board of Directors; R&D; Agency Theory; Corporate Governance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G3 O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-12-13
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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