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korean management review - Vol. 50 , No. 6

[ Article ]
korean management review - Vol. 50, No. 6, pp. 1535-1570
Abbreviation: kmr
ISSN: 1226-1874 (Print)
Print publication date 31 Dec 2021
Received 13 May 2021 Revised 02 Aug 2021 Accepted 03 Aug 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17287/kmr.2021.50.6.1535

Effects of Agency Problems and Outside Monitors on the Participation of Female Directors on the Board of Directors
Sang Cheol Lee ; Yunkeun Lee ; Chang Jin Moon
(First Author) School of Business, Ewha Womans University (sclee@ewha.ac.kr)
(Corresponding Author) College of Business Administration, Dongguk University-Seoul (yunkeun69@gmail.com)
(Co-Author) Citibank (cjmoon9448@naver.com)

대리인문제와 외부감시주체가 여성의 이사회 참여에 미치는 영향

Copyright 2011 THE KOREAN ACADEMIC SOCIETY OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

This study examines the effects of agency problems and outside monitors on the participation of female directors on the board of directors. Analyzing 3,540 non-financial firm-year data listed on the Korea Stock Exchange from 2014 and 2018, we find that women's participation on the board of directors increases in the case of non-owner managed firm with high agency problems between shareholders and managers. We also unveil that when the monitoring incentives of outside monitors such as outside directors, foreign investors and institutional investors increase, the participation of female directors on the board of directors is likely to increase. Furthermore, analyzing 368 non-financial firm-year data of female directors on the board of directors, we find that non-owner manager, affiliated firm of large business groups, the ratio of outside directors on the board of directors and the ownership of both foreign investors and institutional investors have a positive effects on the characteristics of female directors such as the existence of female outside directors, expertise, attendance rate and tenure. The test results of this study indicate that if either agency problems or monitoring incentives of outside monitors are higher, the participation of female directors on the board of directors is likely to increase.


Keywords: agency problem, outside monitors, the participation of female directors on the board, characteristics of female directors

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∙ The author Sang Cheol Lee is currently a professor of accounting at School of Business, Ewha Womans University. He serves as a member of Corporate Governance Research Committee, Korea Corporate Governance Service and an outside director of Meritz Securities. He was the editor at Korean Journal of Management Accounting Research and Samjong- KPMG ACI Professor. He was also an outside director and the chairman of audit committee at Korea Investment Holdings and Korea Investment & Securities. He received his undergraduate, MS and Ph.D. degree in business administration at Yonsei University. Prof. Lee’s research focuses on corporate governance, budget, performance evaluation, and manager compensation.

∙ The author Yunkeun Lee is an adjunct professor at Department of Accounting, Dongguk University. He will serve as an assistant professor at School of Business, Ajou University. He received his undergraduate degree in applied statistics at Yonsei University, MBA degree in KAIST, and Ph.D. in accounting from Dongguk University. He is interested in corporate governance, performance evaluation, and manager compensation.

∙ The author Chang Jin Moon is a manager at Citibank. He received his undergraduate degree in business administration at Hongik University, MBA degree in Korea University, and Ph.D. in accounting from Dongguk University. He is interested in issues of financial accounting and corporate governance structure.