IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/quaeco/v49y2009i3p1159-1171.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Too busy to show up? An analysis of directors' absences

Author

Listed:
  • Jiraporn, Pornsit
  • Davidson III, Wallace N.
  • DaDalt, Peter
  • Ning, Yixi

Abstract

This study contributes to the debate on the benefits and costs of multiple directorships by investigating the impact of multiple directorships on board meeting attendance. Individuals with multiple board seats (or "busy" directors) exhibit a higher tendency to be absent from board meetings. The results are robust even after controlling for firm-specific characteristics, board of directors structure and endogeneity. Furthermore, our results do not support the hypothesis that directors with higher ownership stakes are more motivated to attend board meetings. Monetary inducements such as board meeting fees and annual director retainers do not appear to enhance attendance. Finally, the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) appears to have a material impact on board attendance.

Suggested Citation

  • Jiraporn, Pornsit & Davidson III, Wallace N. & DaDalt, Peter & Ning, Yixi, 2009. "Too busy to show up? An analysis of directors' absences," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 1159-1171, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:quaeco:v:49:y:2009:i:3:p:1159-1171
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1062-9769(08)00063-X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephen P. Ferris & Murali Jagannathan & A. C. Pritchard, 2003. "Too Busy to Mind the Business? Monitoring by Directors with Multiple Board Appointments," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(3), pages 1087-1111, June.
    2. Bebchuk, Lucian A. & Cohen, Alma, 2005. "The costs of entrenched boards," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(2), pages 409-433, November.
    3. Vafeas, Nikos, 1999. "Board meeting frequency and firm performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 113-142, July.
    4. Morck, Randall & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1990. "Do Managerial Objectives Drive Bad Acquisitions?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(1), pages 31-48, March.
    5. Jiraporn, Pornsit & Kim, Young Sang & Davidson III, Wallace N., 2008. "Multiple directorships and corporate diversification," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 418-435, June.
    6. Claudio Loderer & Urs Peyer, 2002. "Board Overlap, Seat Accumulation and Share Prices," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 8(2), pages 165-192, June.
    7. McConnell, John J. & Servaes, Henri, 1990. "Additional evidence on equity ownership and corporate value," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 595-612, October.
    8. Kee H. Chung & Stephen W. Pruitt, 1994. "A Simple Approximation of Tobin's q," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 23(3), Fall.
    9. Weisbach, Michael S., 1988. "Outside directors and CEO turnover," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1-2), pages 431-460, January.
    10. Kole, Stacey R & Lehn, Kenneth, 1997. "Deregulation, the Evolution of Corporate Governance Structure, and Survival," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(2), pages 421-425, May.
    11. 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.
    12. Himmelberg, Charles P. & Hubbard, R. Glenn & Palia, Darius, 1999. "Understanding the determinants of managerial ownership and the link between ownership and performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 353-384, September.
    13. Palia, Darius, 2001. "The Endogeneity of Managerial Compensation in Firm Valuation: A Solution," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 14(3), pages 735-764.
    14. Shivdasani, Anil, 1993. "Board composition, ownership structure, and hostile takeovers," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1-3), pages 167-198, April.
    15. Anil Shivdasani & David Yermack, 1999. "CEO Involvement in the Selection of New Board Members: An Empirical Analysis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(5), pages 1829-1853, October.
    16. repec:bla:jfinan:v:58:y:2003:i:3:p:1087-1112 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Eliezer M. Fich & Anil Shivdasani, 2006. "Are Busy Boards Effective Monitors?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(2), pages 689-724, April.
    18. Zhou, Xianming, 2001. "Understanding the determinants of managerial ownership and the link between ownership and performance: comment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 559-571, December.
    19. Baysinger, Barry D & Zardkoohi, Asghar, 1986. "Technology, Residual Claimants, and Corporate Control," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 2(2), pages 339-349, Fall.
    20. Baysinger, Barry D & Butler, Henry N, 1985. "Corporate Governance and the Board of Directors: Performance Effects of Changes in Board Composition," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 101-124, Spring.
    21. Cheng, Shijun, 2008. "Board size and the variability of corporate performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 157-176, January.
    22. Core, John E. & Holthausen, Robert W. & Larcker, David F., 1999. "Corporate governance, chief executive officer compensation, and firm performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 371-406, March.
    23. Fama, Eugene F & Jensen, Michael C, 1983. "Separation of Ownership and Control," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(2), pages 301-325, June.
    24. Xie, Biao & Davidson, Wallace III & DaDalt, Peter J., 2003. "Earnings management and corporate governance: the role of the board and the audit committee," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 295-316, June.
    25. Stuart Rosenstein & Jeffrey G. Wyatt, 1994. "Shareholder wealth effects when an officer of one corporation joins the board of directors of another," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(4), pages 317-327, July/Augu.
    26. Booth, James R. & Cornett, Marcia Millon & Tehranian, Hassan, 2002. "Boards of directors, ownership, and regulation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(10), pages 1973-1996, October.
    27. Tod Perry & Urs Peyer, 2005. "Board Seat Accumulation by Executives: A Shareholder's Perspective," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(4), pages 2083-2123, August.
    28. McConnell, John J. & Servaes, Henri, 1995. "Equity ownership and the two faces of debt," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 131-157, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. 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.
    2. Volonté, Christophe, 2015. "Boards: Independent and committed directors?," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 25-37.
    3. Ahn, Seoungpil & Jiraporn, Pornsit & Kim, Young Sang, 2010. "Multiple directorships and acquirer returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(9), pages 2011-2026, September.
    4. Jiraporn, Pornsit & Kim, Young Sang & Davidson III, Wallace N., 2008. "Multiple directorships and corporate diversification," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 418-435, June.
    5. Sheeba Kapil & Rakesh K Mishra, 2019. "Corporate Governance structure and firm performance in Indian context: A Structural Equation Modelling Approach," Working Papers 1937, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.
    6. Jiraporn, Pornsit & Singh, Manohar & Lee, Chun I., 2009. "Ineffective corporate governance: Director busyness and board committee memberships," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 819-828, May.
    7. Bill B. Francis & Iftekhar Hasan & Qiang Wu, 2012. "Do corporate boards matter during the current financial crisis?," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(2), pages 39-52, April.
    8. 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.
    9. Isabel-María García-Sánchez, 2010. "The effectiveness of corporate governance: board structure and business technical efficiency in Spain," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 18(3), pages 311-339, September.
    10. Buchwald, Achim, 2015. "Competition, outside directors and executive turnover: Implications for corporate governance in the EU," DICE Discussion Papers 174, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    11. 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.
    12. Ting-Kai Chou & Hsuan-Ling Feng, 2019. "Multiple directorships and the value of cash holdings," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 53(3), pages 663-699, October.
    13. Lerong He & Rong Yang, 2014. "Does Industry Regulation Matter? New Evidence on Audit Committees and Earnings Management," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 123(4), pages 573-589, September.
    14. Masulis, Ronald W. & Mobbs, Shawn, 2014. "Independent director incentives: Where do talented directors spend their limited time and energy?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(2), pages 406-429.
    15. Aziz Jaafar & Lynn Hodgkinson & Mao-Feng Kao, 2019. "Ownership Structure, Board of Directors and Firm Performance: Evidence from Taiwan," Working Papers 19011, Bangor Business School, Prifysgol Bangor University (Cymru / Wales).
    16. Benson, Bradley W. & Chen, Yu & James, Hui L. & Park, Jung Chul, 2020. "So far away from me: Firm location and the managerial ownership effect on firm value," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    17. Prevost, Andrew K. & Rao, Ramesh P. & Hossain, Mahmud, 2002. "Determinants of board composition in New Zealand: a simultaneous equations approach," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 373-397, November.
    18. Brookman, Jeff & Thistle, Paul D., 2009. "CEO tenure, the risk of termination and firm value," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 331-344, June.
    19. Faleye, Olubunmi & Hoitash, Rani & Hoitash, Udi, 2011. "The costs of intense board monitoring," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(1), pages 160-181, July.
    20. Winson Chan & David Emanuel, 2011. "Board governance and acquirers’ returns: A study of Australian acquisitions," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 36(2), pages 174-199, August.

    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:eee:quaeco:v:49:y:2009:i:3:p:1159-1171. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620167 .

    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.