Family Firms, Expropriation and Firm Value : Evidence of the Role of Independent Directors’ Tenure in Malaysia

This paper was conducted to examine whether there was a negative relationship between independent directors’ tenure and firm value which indicated the existence of expropriation due to long tenure of independent directors and whether controlling shareholders’ ownership moderated this relationship among Malaysian firms. The results revealed that there was a negative relationship between independent directors’ tenure and firm value. It also showed there was a significant positive moderating effect of controlling shareholders’ ownership on the relationship among Malaysian family firms in exclusive industries. However, there was inconclusive evidence that this negative relationship and positive moderating effect were stronger amongst the family firms compared with non-family firms