Board characteristics and firm performance - Evidence from Chinese private listed firms

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of board characteristics and firm performance in Chinese private listed firms. I use the regression analysis to test the effects of the board meeting, board size, board independence, managerial shareholding, directors without remuneration and chairman’s shareholding ratio on firm performance. Based on the sample of the 4023 firm-year observations from 447 private listed firms in China from 2010 to 2018, the results show that the firm performance is negatively associated with board meeting frequency and positively related managerial shareholding. I also find the percentage of independent directors has no relationship with firm performance. However, the findings cannot provide evidence that board size, director without remuneration and chairman’s shareholding ratio would affect firm performance. These findings provide some implications for future research on the effectiveness of board directors on private listed firm performance.