Are the professional networks of corporate directors valuable? More connected directors may have better information and more influence, which can increase firm value. However, these directors may also be busy or spread value-decreasing practices. To separate the effect of director networks on...

The theoretical predictions about the net impact of board network on firm performance are ambiguous and the issue becomes even more complex in emerging economies characterized by concentrated ownership structure and dominated by business group firms. This paper empirically analyzes the effect of...

We present causal evidence on the e↵ect of boardroom networks on firm value and compensation policies. We exploit a ban on interlocking directorates of Italian financial and insurance companies as exogenous variation and show that firms that lose centrality in the network experience negative...

Board governance is an important aspect of internal bank governance. We conduct an empirical study on 100 banks in China for the period from 2004 to 2017 using a time-varying growth bank shareholder network to investigate the relationship and mechanism between bank shareholder network and board...

Using the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 as a natural experiment, we document a non-monotonic relation between board independence and credit ratings. Ratings are upgraded with an exogenous increase of board independence only when independence is low, which is consistent with the costs as well as...

This study seeks to disentangle the human capital and the social capital of directors to improve our understanding of the value that directors bring to their boardroom. Employing social network analysis (SNA) to measure the social capital of directors and using a unique and comprehensive sample...

The paper analyzes internal factors which influence the use of equity - and mezzanine-based financing instruments in German privately held family firms. Based on a sample of 195 surveys of family firms, we investigate the impact of family specific goals and corporate governance structures on the...

During the recent financial crisis, financial expertise among independent directors of financial institutions is negatively related to changes in both Tobin's Q and cumulative stock returns. Furthermore, financial expertise is positively associated with risk-taking levels in the run-up to the...

We examine how risk taking and firm value are related to independence and financial expertise of the board for a large sample of U.S. financial institutions both before and during the financial crisis. During the crisis, financial expertise is negatively related to both changes in Tobin's Q and...

During the recent financial crisis, financial expertise among independent directors of commercial banks is negatively related to changes in both firm value and cumulative stock returns. Furthermore, financial expertise is positively associated with risk-taking levels in the run-up to the crisis...