Number of Independent Board Directors and Training Hours and Financial Performance of TSEC [Taiwan Securities Exchange Corporation] Electronic Companies

Author

Fu-Huei Yang, Lynn University

Date of Award

10-10-2006

Document Type

Dissertation

Granting Institution

Lynn University

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PHD)

Department

College of Business and Management

First Advisor

Ralph Norcio

Second Advisor

James Miller

Third Advisor

John Cipolla

Abstract

In February 2002, the regulation of appointing independent directors in the boardroom was set forth in "Corporate Governance Best-Practice Principles for TSEC/GTSM Listed Companies" (CGBPP). Since the enactment of the amended "Security and Exchange Act" in 2006, all listed companies are required to appoint independent directors, not less than two in number and not less than one-fifth of the total number of directors.

In addition to implementing the independent directors system, in order to enhance director competencies and director behavior, the TSEC announced the "Guideline for Promotion of Advanced Study by Directors and Supervisors of TSEC/GTSM Listed Companies." In this guideline, a newly recruited director of TSEC listed companies is advised to take at least 12 hours of training courses for the recruitment year, and at least 3 hours for each of the following years of tenure.

The purpose of this exploratory (comparative) and explanatory (correlational) study was to examine the differences between the absence or presence of independent directors on company performance of TSEC listed electronic companies, and the relationship between the number of independent directors and the number of board training hours and company performance of TSEC listed electronic companies.

In this study, independent directors were measured by the absence or presence of the independent directors and their number in the boardroom. Board members' training was measured by the total training hours of the board. Company performance was measured by financial indicators in terms of ROA , ROE, and EPS. Findings indicated that the presence of independent directors was associated with significantly higher company's financial performance for TSEC electronic companies. Results of simple regression analyses indicated that the number of board training hours significantly explained about 1% of financial performance of TSEC listed electronic companies. Results of multiple regression analyses demonstrated that the number of independent directors and the number of board of directors training hours were significant explanatory variables of about 7% of financial performance (ROA, ROE, and EPS) of TSEC listed electronic companies. Interpretations , implications, conclusions, and recommendations for future study are discussed.

Recommended Citation

Yang, F. (2006). Number of Independent Board Directors and Training Hours and Financial Performance of TSEC [Taiwan Securities Exchange Corporation] Electronic Companies [Doctoral dissertation, Lynn University]. SPIRAL. https://spiral.lynn.edu/etds/94