何種因素造成董事會獨立性?

Abstract

有鑑於獨立性較高的董事會能提升公司治理的績效，本研究根據2002年到2006年台灣的上市櫃公司資料探討董事會獨立性(board independence)的決定因素。實證結果顯示，企業規模和其經理人能享有私人利益的機會，對董事會獨立性產生顯著的正向影響。此外，擁有較高成長機會和受外界影響較大的企業願意聘請較多的獨立董事。再者，家族董事的比例對董事會獨立性呈現顯著的負向影響，相反地，家族成員持股率對董事會獨立性則產生顯著的正向影響。然而，不同於以往的研究結果，發現企業年齡對董事會獨立性有負向的影響，亦即資歷較長的企業並不傾向聘請較多的獨立董事。本研究亦將樣本按企業大小分類，針對其董事會結構進行比較，發現大公司和小公司的董事會結構確實存在明顯差異。

We set out in this study to identify the determinants of board independence with the sample of listed firms in Taiwan from 2002 to 2006 based on that independent boards have an important contribution to enhance corporate governance. The evidence shows that firms with larger size and greater opportunities of managers to consume private benefits tend to hire more independent directors. Besides, higher growth opportunities, as well as greater outsider influence provide the same positive effect on appointing independent directors. Furthermore, firms with greater proportion of family board members reduce the tendency to appoint more independent directors; the higher shareholding amongst family members provides the positive effect on board independence. However, firm age is found to have a contradictory effect to that reported in the prior studies. Firms which are more seasoned do not necessarily tend to hire more independent directors. We also compare board structures across different firm sizes and find that board composition in small and large firms is extremely divergent.