Outside directors, board interlocks and firm performance: Empirical evidence from Colombian business Groups

We investigate the relation of board structure through the appointments of outside directors and the role of busy directors on firm return on assets within an environment of no regulation for privately held firms and voluntary adoption of corporate best practices for security issuers with family con...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Pombo, C., Gutiérrez, L.H.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2011
País:Colombia
Institución:Universidad de los Andes
Repositorio:Séneca: repositorio Uniandes
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.uniandes.edu.co:1992/46843
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/1992/46843
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148619511000117
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Outside directors
Board interlocks
Busy directors
Corporate governance
Firm performance
Control contestability
Colombian corporations
Descripción
Sumario:We investigate the relation of board structure through the appointments of outside directors and the role of busy directors on firm return on assets within an environment of no regulation for privately held firms and voluntary adoption of corporate best practices for security issuers with family controlling blockholders. This study relies on a sample of an average of 335 firms per year for the 1996¿2006 period, where 244 are private firms and 285 are affiliated to one of the seven largest non-financial business groups in the country. Five of these groups were, in 2006, still family-controlled. We find a positive relation between both the ratio of outside directors, and the degree of board interlocks, with firm return-on-assets. Outside busy directors turned out to be key drivers of improved firm performance. Appointments of outsiders are endogenous to firm ownership structure. Blockholder activism as well as contestability becomes an internal mechanism that improves director monitoring and ex-post firm valuation.