Happy few, band of brothers? Determinants and effects of board nomination committees in Switzerland
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2005-08-08
Author(s)
Abstract
This paper assesses the corporate governance related antecedents of nomination committee adoption, and the impact of nomination committees' existence and their composition on board independence and board demographic diversity. We conducted a longitudinal study of board composition amongst 210 Swiss public companies from January 2001 through December 2003, a period during which the Swiss (Stock) Exchange introduced new corporate governance related disclosure guidelines. We find firms with nomination committees are more likely to have higher number of independent and foreign directors, but not more likely to have higher number of female board members. Further, the existence of nomination committees is associated with a higher degree of nationality diversity but is not related to board educational diversity. We also find that nomination committee composition matters in the nomination of independent and foreign, but not of female directors. Our results suggest that understanding different board roles and composition require a multi-theoretical approach, and that agency theory, institutional theory and group effectiveness theory help to explain different aspects of board composition and work. Finally, the paper discusses the concept of diversity and appropriate ways to study diversity in a boardroom context.
Language
English
Keywords
board demographic diversity
board independence
nomination committees
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Event Title
Academy of Management Annual Meeting (AOM) 2005 "A New Vision of Management in the 21st Century"
Event Location
Honolulu, HI
Event Date
05.-10.07.2005
Subject(s)
Eprints ID
16370