Board independence, sub-committee independence and firm performance: evidence from Australia

This study investigates whether the monitoring of company management by an independent board of directors serves to enhance firm performance in Australia. The paper explores in detail the impact of the level of independence of the main board and sub-committees including audit, remuneration and nomin...

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Main Authors: Singhchawla, W., Evans, Robert, Evans, John
Format: Journal Article
Published: Curtin University of Technology. School of Economics and Finance 2011
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/8620
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author Singhchawla, W.
Evans, Robert
Evans, John
author_facet Singhchawla, W.
Evans, Robert
Evans, John
author_sort Singhchawla, W.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description This study investigates whether the monitoring of company management by an independent board of directors serves to enhance firm performance in Australia. The paper explores in detail the impact of the level of independence of the main board and sub-committees including audit, remuneration and nomination on performance in a sample of 250 listed companies. From the perspective of a regulator, the study’s findings have implications and suggest that an independent main board produces superior results. The shareholding of independent directors is also found to negatively impact performance for this data, suggesting that their role as independent arbiter is restricted by shareholding. Interestingly, the returns to firm performance engendered by independence did not extend to the composition of sub-committees, where the presence of outside directors did not significantly influence performance.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
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publishDate 2011
publisher Curtin University of Technology. School of Economics and Finance
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-86202017-01-30T11:07:46Z Board independence, sub-committee independence and firm performance: evidence from Australia Singhchawla, W. Evans, Robert Evans, John This study investigates whether the monitoring of company management by an independent board of directors serves to enhance firm performance in Australia. The paper explores in detail the impact of the level of independence of the main board and sub-committees including audit, remuneration and nomination on performance in a sample of 250 listed companies. From the perspective of a regulator, the study’s findings have implications and suggest that an independent main board produces superior results. The shareholding of independent directors is also found to negatively impact performance for this data, suggesting that their role as independent arbiter is restricted by shareholding. Interestingly, the returns to firm performance engendered by independence did not extend to the composition of sub-committees, where the presence of outside directors did not significantly influence performance. 2011 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/8620 Curtin University of Technology. School of Economics and Finance fulltext
spellingShingle Singhchawla, W.
Evans, Robert
Evans, John
Board independence, sub-committee independence and firm performance: evidence from Australia
title Board independence, sub-committee independence and firm performance: evidence from Australia
title_full Board independence, sub-committee independence and firm performance: evidence from Australia
title_fullStr Board independence, sub-committee independence and firm performance: evidence from Australia
title_full_unstemmed Board independence, sub-committee independence and firm performance: evidence from Australia
title_short Board independence, sub-committee independence and firm performance: evidence from Australia
title_sort board independence, sub-committee independence and firm performance: evidence from australia
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/8620