Title: Director tenure and busyness and corporate governance

Authors: Flora Niu; Greg Berberich

Addresses: School of Business and Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo Ontario, N2L 3C5, Canada ' School of Accounting and Finance, University of Waterloo, Waterloo Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada

Abstract: This paper examines the influence of two key director attributes on corporate governance performance. More specifically, it examines the association between director tenure, director busyness and the likelihood of encountering governance problems. Results based on a logistic regression analysis of a sample of S&P 1500 directors indicate that long-serving directors and directors holding many board appointments are more likely to be associated with governance problems at the firms they oversee. These results reduce some of the inconclusiveness of prior research on the governance impacts of director busyness and tenure, and suggest the need to limit terms of service and cap the number of board appointments that can be held simultaneously.

Keywords: director tenure; multiple directorships; corporate governance; financial statement fraud; director busyness.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCG.2015.069766

International Journal of Corporate Governance, 2015 Vol.6 No.1, pp.56 - 69

Received: 19 Jun 2014
Accepted: 21 Feb 2015
Published online: 09 Jun 2015 *

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