长幼有序、董事权力的合法性与董事会治理效率——基于现金持有视角的经验证据

Respect for Seniority,Legitimacy of Director's Power and Efficiency of Board Governance

本文从现金持有视角考察了长幼有序文化对董事会治理的影响。我们发现,比公司最高管理者年长的董事比例增加降低了公司现金持有水平和超额现金持有水平,这种影响在儒家文化影响力较大的地区、董事会稳定性较强、董事会规模较大、国有控股、董事长与CEO两职分离的公司中更加明显;进一步研究还发现,年龄比公司最高管理者大的董事比例增加可以提高现金持有和超额现金持有的价值,且其作用在儒家文化影响力较大的地区、董事会稳定性较强、董事会规模较大、国有控股、董事长与CEO两职分离的公司中更加明显;相比独立董事,非独立董事比公司最高管理者年长能够更明显地降低公司现金持有水平和超额现金持有水平,提高现金持有和超额现金持有的价值。本文的证据表明,董事与公司管理者间的年龄关系通过影响他们间的权威结构,能够影响董事会治理效率。

Based on the legitimacy theory,this paper,for the first time,investigates the impact of the culture of Respect for Seniority on the efficiency of board governance from the perspective of cash holdings.We find that an increase in the proportion of directors who are older than the top manager decreases the excessive cash holding of the company,but there is no evidence that it has a significant impact on the cash holding deficiency.Further research shows that the impacts of the increasing proportion of directors who are older than the top manager on the excessive cash holding are more pronounced in the companies whose boards are more stable,larger,or who are state-owned.Increasing the proportion of directors older than the top manager can increase the value of cash holdings,and these effects are also more pronounced in the companies whose boards are more stable,larger,or who are state-owned.The evidences in this paper indicate that the culture of Respect for Seniority can promote the legitimacy of directors'power and reduce the agency problem of managers when directors are older than the top manager.This paper not only enhances our understanding of the role of social culture in board governance,but also enriches the researches on cash holdings.