Country Versus Industry Effect on Board Structures

We examine the board structures of US and Indian firms in two industries. We examine three aspects of board structures: board size, board independence, and board leadership. The two industries selected for analysis are information technology and capital goods. While Indian information technology firms have close ties to the American economy, capital goods firms have a domestic focus. Thus, we are able to analyze differences in board structures of firms in two countries and two industries, one of which is closely related and the other relatively unrelated. We do not find any significant differences in board size and board leadership for US and Indian firms in either industry. However, we find that US boards are more independent than Indian firms, both for information technology firms and capital goods firms. These findings are more supportive of the country effect than for the industry effect on board structures