2021 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Effects of foreign directors on firm performance: Evidence from Japan.
| Project/Area Number |
19K13744
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| Research Institution | Waseda University |
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Principal Investigator |
グエン・ティ・フォン タン 早稲田大学, 産業経営研究所, その他(招聘研究員) (60791928)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
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| Keywords | Foreign director / Corporate governance / Firm performance / Japan |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The purpose of this paper is to measure the effects of foreign directors on firm performance, an aspect of board composition that has hitherto received little attention. The theoretical and empirical literature highlights the important role played by the board of directors in corporate governance and firm performance via its monitoring and advising functions. In this study, we provide new empirical evidence on this topic using data of Japanese firms. In terms of descriptive findings, we reveal that foreign directors make up only 4.24% of Japanese corporate boardrooms. Concerning the relation between foreign director presence and firm performance, we find that the effects of foreign directors are overall not strong. When we measure the before and after performance changes of firms appointing their first foreign director and compare them with the control group, we obtain no evidence from propensity score matching (PSM) difference-in-difference (DiD) estimation that the first appointment of a foreign director improves firm performance. We also apply an event study approach and calculate the cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) of all firm announcement events concerning first foreign director appointments. The results there demonstrate that the announcement of first foreign director appointments is associated with positive abnormal returns, but these are not statistically significant.
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