中国独立董事：“咨询”、“监督”还是“决策”？——兼论独立董事特征对履职的调节效应

Independent Director of China:“Consultation”,“Supervision” or “Decision”?——On the Regulating Effect of the Characteristics of Independent Directors on Performance

以中国2015—2017年沪深A股国企和民企作为研究样本,实证研究独立董事咨询、监督和决策3项职能的效用以及独立董事在董事会所占比例、薪酬水平、年龄和异地化程度等特征对独立董事职能发挥的调节作用,并利用替代检验法进行了稳健性检验。研究发现:独立董事监督职能发挥效果明显,咨询和决策职能并没有得到充分的发挥;独立董事占比和薪酬都不能对独立董事职能的发挥起到很好的调节作用;民企独立董事年龄越大越有利于监督职能的发挥,而国企独立董事年龄较大有利于决策职能的发挥;独立董事异地化程度越严重越不利于监督职能的发挥。因此,应进一步明确独立董事咨询、监督和决策3项职能,使其有法可依,加强咨询和决策职能的发挥力度;建立一套完善的独立董事选人用人机制和标准薪酬考核体系,以达到对独立董事的激励作用;重点聘用年龄较大且具有丰富知识和经验的本地独立董事。

Taking China's 2015-2017 Shanghai-Shenzhen A-share state-owned enterprises and private enterprises as a research sample, this paper makes an empirical study on the effectiveness of the three functions of independent directors, namely, consulting, supervision and decision-making, and the regulating role of the proportion of independent director in the board of directors, their salary level, age and proportion of non-local independent directors in the functioning of independent directors. Substitution test method is used to test the robustness of the study and reveals the following findings: First, the supervision function of independent directors is effective, whereas the advisory and decision-making functions have not been fully realized;second, the proportion of independent directors and their salary do not play an effective regulating role in the functioning of independent directors;third, the older the independent directors of private enterprises, the more conducive is it to the play of supervision functions, while the older the independent directors of state-owned enterprises, the more conducive is it to the play of decision-making functions;fourth, the higher the proportion of non-local independent directors, the more unfavorable it is for the supervision function. Therefore, it is necessary to further clarify the three functions of consultation, supervision and decision-making of independent directors, so that there would be legal basis for strengthening the consulting and decision-making function;there is an urgent need to establish a comprehensive selection and employment mechanism for independent directors and a standard salary assessment system to offer incentive to independent directors;and it is suggested that more local independent directors with rich knowledge and experience should be employed.