Meta-analytic reviews of board composition, leadership structure, and financial performance

TLDR

Existing research on board composition and leadership structure shows inconsistent or no clear link to firm financial performance. This study conducts meta‑analyses of 54 board composition studies and 31 board leadership structure studies to examine their relationships with firm financial performance. The authors performed meta‑analyses on 54 board composition studies (159 samples, 40,160 participants) and 31 board leadership structure studies (69 samples, 12,915 participants). The analyses and moderators reveal little evidence of systematic relationships between governance structures and financial performance. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Abstract

Careful review of extant research addressing the relationships between board composition, board leadership structure, and firm financial performance demonstrates little consistency in results. In general, neither board composition nor board leadership structure has been consistently linked to firm financial performance. In response to these findings, we provide meta-analyses of 54 empirical studies of board composition (159 samples, n = 40,160) and 31 empirical studies of board leadership structure (69 samples, n = 12,915) and their relationships to firm financial performance. These—and moderator analyses relying on firm size, the nature of the financial performance indicator, and various operationalizations of board composition—provide little evidence of systematic governance structure/financial performance relationships. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.