We find that the presence of independent directors who are blockholders (IDBs) in firms promotes better CEO contracting and monitoring, and higher firm valuation. Using a panel of about 11,500 firm-years with a unique, hand-collected dataset on IDB-identity and a novel instrument, we find that...

We investigate the association between board size and firm valuation for a sample of 169 firms from 2002 to 2011 in South Africa (SA). The SA corporate context is interestingly and uniquely characterised by an urgency to meet affirmative action regulations, such as black empowerment in board...

Manuscript Type: Empirical Research Question/Issue: We propose and test a new perspective on why the boards of some acquiring firms purchase a fairness opinion (FO). Specifically, we examine whether the board's knowledge explains the use of a FO and the market reaction to the FO. Research...

Post regulatory enactments, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act, 2002 and the Narayana Murthy Committee's report, responsibilities of the board have undergone a major change. Consequently, different aspects of board structure, comprising board size, board independence and CEO duality, have become...