Board Level Research Articles

Board of Directors and Financial Restatement: Evidence from The Two-Tier System

Purpose : This study investigates the role of the characteristics of the Board of Directors (BoD) on financial restatements. The characteristics are reviewed based on board tenure, board size, board independence, female board, foreign board member, board level education, board accounting expertise, and dual board position. Method : The research sample is a manufacturing company on the Indonesia Stock Exchange for 2017-2021. The analytical tool used is logistic regression. Findings : This study found that five board characteristics negatively affect financial restatements: board tenure, board size, board independence, female board, and board accounting expertise. On the other hand, a dual position has a positive effect on financial restatements. Meanwhile, foreign board and board education do not significantly affect financial restatements. Novelty : First, considering BoD as a decision maker in the company, board characteristics influence group dynamics in collaboration and communication to implement corporate governance. Second, studies that analyze the impact of executive boards on financial statements still need to be expanded, especially in Indonesia, which adheres to a two-tier system. Third, previous studies that examine the role of BoD and financial restatements have provided contradictory evidence, and many studies still need to prove the effectiveness of the BoDs’ characteristics on financial restatements. Keywords : Director; Female; Restatement

Nonprofit Disaster Response and Climate Change: Who Responds? Who Plans?

Abstract As weather disasters intensify under the impacts of climate change, an important public policy question is whether the kinds of organizations most likely to provide disaster relief are themselves planning for climate change. A statewide Indiana survey of the leaders of a wide variety of community “social safety net” organizations (N = 467) provides rich descriptive data to understand the realities of local disaster planning as it relates to climate change. Our findings support federal disaster policy in showing first that most of these charities have been or expect to be involved in local disaster relief, either as a primary or secondary mission focus. Charities identifying as primarily disaster responders are much more likely to belong to local emergency planning networks and slightly more likely to plan for emergencies. However, most charity leaders do not acknowledge climate change’s human origins and have not discussed climate change at the board level, with this position strongly related to their understanding of climate change’s potential impact on the communities they serve. And most have not taken some risk mitigation steps. We conclude that the Federal Emergency Management Authority’s national disaster response policy, which relies on the readiness of nonprofits to fill in service roles, does not account for the potential unpreparedness of nonprofits themselves. Policymakers should expand their “whole-community” (three-sector) approach to reinforce local network opportunities as forums for exchanging experience and knowledge, including an explicit linkage between the communication of the science of climate change and emergency planning.

Bonding Property of Middle Temperature Sn-Ag-Cu Solder Ball Joint of Ball Grid Array Package

Alloying effects of Nickel and Bismuth in SAC solder to achieve mechanical and microstructural evolution were investigated by comparing three different chemical composition of solders. Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu (SAC305) is the most commonly used for Pb-free solder and solder balls are based on Sn-Ag-Cu alloy composition. Compositions of solder balls were Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu (SAC305), Sn-1.2Ag-0.5Cu-0.05Ni (SAC1205N) and Sn-Ag-Cu-Ni-Bi based solder (SACNB). Organic solderability preservative (OSP) surface finished substrate, ball grid array (BGA) package arranged by 300 ㎛ diameter solder ball and Type 4 solder paste were used. Solder ball shear test of the BGA package was conducted before the reflow soldering. Board level package bonding process was carried out by hot air reflow soldering. Void content of the BGA solder joint was investigated after soldering. The microstructure evolution before and after thermal cycle test (TCT) was observed using scanning eletron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). After TCT, intermetallic compound (IMC) refinement and solid solution strengthening effects of Bi element addition were observed in the solder matrix, and also any segregation of Bi element was not founded. Based on these result, it was found that the solder joint reliability of the middle and low temperature solder joints was improved.

Employee voice at board level: Responses to the revised UK Corporate Governance Code and the prospects for workplace democracy

This article presents empirical findings on listed company responses to provisions on board-level workforce engagement in the revised 2018 UK Corporate Governance Code, based on analysis of FTSE 350 company reports, survey data from 70 firms, and a series of 41 interviews with directors, senior managers and workforce representatives across 17 case study firms. The findings suggest that, despite some pockets of good practice, the current code-based regulatory framework is weak and ineffective. In light of this, the article considers current debates around strengthening worker voice in governance structures – including through appeals to corporate purpose, investor engagement, and wider changes in the legal and regulatory architecture. It concludes that any fundamental reform would require a recasting of the narrative around corporate purpose, based on a pluralist recognition of the dual nature of labour/capital investments in the firm and a renewed emphasis on the principle of workplace democracy.

Impact of gender diversity on firm performance: empirical evidence from India

PurposeThe main purpose of the study is to investigate the impact of gender diversity both at the board and workforce level on firm performance (FP) in the Indian context.Design/methodology/approachThis study is based on annual data of 200 companies listed on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) for the period 2012–2019. The authors have used the fixed-effects (FE) regression and system generalized method of moments to estimate the impact of board gender diversity and workforce gender diversity (WGD) on FP. The authors have used Blau's Index (BI) and Shannon's Index (SI) to measure gender diversity. Further, the authors have used return on assets and Tobin's Q (TBQ) to measure FP.FindingsThe authors' panel regression results suggest that board gender diversity and WGD have a positive and statistically significant impact on FP. The authors' findings are robust across different methods of estimation and alternative measures of FP.Originality/valueThis paper examines the impact of gender diversity both at the board and workforce level on FP of 200 companies listed on BSE. The authors' study contributes to the literature that is sparse in the Indian context and provides new insights on the impact of board and WGD on FP. The findings have useful policy implications. To achieve better performance, it is imperative to appreciate gender diversity at the governance and workforce level in a fast-growing economy like India.

What can Safety Cases offer for patient safety? A multisite case study

BackgroundThe Safety Case is a regulatory technique that requires organisations to demonstrate to regulators that they have systematically identified hazards in their systems and reduced risks to being as low...

Is it broken?

Orthopaedics: A specialty with 388 current active surgeons in Aotearoa New Zealand of whom just 25 (6.4%) are women. This is a pretty dismal statistic given that women represent more than 50% of our medical school graduates. We acknowledge that not everyone has a strong interest in orthopaedics and that it is possible that a greater number of female doctors may genuinely be more interested in other areas of medicine. However, the issue is about ensuring that those that do have the interest and the potential to become great surgeons are not discouraged by feeling as if they do not belong. With the current gender inequality in orthopaedics, we are missing out on potential talent and the benefits of diversity. In addition, there are few Māori and Pasifika surgeons in Aotearoa New Zealand and only one openly gay practicing orthopaedic surgeon. Beyond even the sense of fairness and equity or the moral imperative, we know that diversity benefits organisations. Diverse groups make better decisions and experience improved creativity, performance, collaboration, and innovation. In step with this, the 30% Club is an established global campaign to improve female representation at board level in the world’s biggest companies. Evidence based studies have shown that improving diversity, in orthopaedics specifically, leads to higher quality patient care and better outcomes.

Gender inequalities in Korean family business: contradictions between show and tell

PurposeThis paper explores how gender-related issues are communicated in Korean family-run conglomerates (chaebols) and the roles of women within these businesses. It also addresses to what extent the communication of chaebols about female employment and career development reflects the perception of gender representation in these organisations.Design/methodology/approachBy paying attention to gendered discourse in Korean chaebols, this paper examines what is said and written about gender issues in glottographic statements (texts) and non-glottographic statements (charts and other visuals) of annual reports (ARs) published by five chaebols since 2010. The paper uses a Foucauldian framework to develop the archive of statements made within these ARs.FindingsAlthough there is an increase in female-employee ratios, ARs show that number of women at the board or senior management level continue to be small. ARs tend to provide numbers related to female employment and retention in their non-glottographic statements, yet these numbers occasionally differ from and frequently are not explained by glottographic statements. The strategies used by chaebols to improve career prospects for their female staff are only vaguely described and rarely evaluated.Originality/valueThis paper looks beyond the existing discourse analysis on “talk and text” by also investigating claims made through graphic and linear/pictorial elements and their interplay with text. This approach opens new understandings of how gendered discourses are constructed and how they (unintentionally) fail to resolve issues and perceptions related to female employment and career development in Korea.

Corporate Governance Standard and Financial Performance of Nigerian Health Care Manufacturing Companies

This study examined the extent at which corporate governance standard affects financial performance on health care manufacturing companies in Nigeria from 2012 to 2021. Ex Post Facto research design was adopted for the study. Six health care manufacturing companies were selected for the study. Data were extracted from annual reports and accounts of the sampled health care companies and regression analysis was employed to test the hypotheses. The results show that shareholders relationship has significant effect on return on equity of health care manufacturing companies in Nigeria while remuneration has no significant effect on return on equity of health care manufacturing companies in Nigeria. Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended that the company’s management should consider a judicious and reasonable reimbursement level of board’s members to attract a realistic relation between shareholders and company’s management, hence, enhance firm’s financial performance in the intensification of shareholders’ value

A novel image reconstruction algorithm based on texture aware multiscale GAN for veneer defects

Veneer is the critical raw material for manufacturing man-made board products, therefore the quality of the veneer determines the level of the man-made board. However, defects in the veneer may significantly lower its grade. Currently, identifying veneer defects requires manual inspection and subsequent inpainting using a veneer digging machine. Unfortunately, this method only removes the defects of the veneer but ignore the consistency of its texture. To address this issue, we propose a feasible veneer defect reconstruction method that utilizes a texture-aware-multiscale-GAN architecture. Our method performs texture reconstruction of veneer defects to increase the texture information of the reconstructed image while improving the model efficiency, so that generates natural-looking textures in the reconstructed defect areas. The model is trained by end-to-end updating of four cascades of efficient generators and discriminators. We also employed a loss function based on local binary patterns (LBP) to ensure that the restored images contain sufficient texture information. Finally, region normalization is used in the model to enhance the accuracy of the model. Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR), Structural Similarity Index (SSIM) are used to evaluate the effectiveness of image restoration, the results show that PSNR of the method reacheds 35.32 and SSIM reaches 0.971. By minimizing the difference between the generated texture and that of the original image, our model produces high-quality results.

503 Post-Pandemic Elective Surgical Activity: A Focus on Day-Case Laparoscopic Cholecystectomies Across England

Abstract Aim To investigate the association between post-pandemic activity levels and day-case rates for laparoscopic cholecystectomies in England. Method We examined data from HES (Hospital Episode Statistics) on adult elective laparoscopic cholecystectomies for the period January 2019 to September 2022 (inclusive). Activity levels in the first six months of 2022 were compared to activity levels for the whole of 2019 (the baseline). Day-case activity was identified where the length of stay record in HES was zero days. Data were summarised at an Integrated Care Board (ICB) level for analysis. Results Data were available for 168,811 patients across the 42 ICBs in England. By April–September 2022, activity levels had returned to 89% of pre-pandemic levels for the whole of England. The South West Region stood out as having recovered activity levels to the greatest extent, with activity at 102% of pre-pandemic levels by April–September 2022. The South West also had the highest post-pandemic day-case rate at 75% of all patients seen as day-cases during April–September 2022; this compares to an England average of 66%. All other regions had day case rates between 62 and 68%. At an ICB level, there was a significant correlation between day-case rates and post-pandemic activity levels (r = 0.327, p < 0.035). Conclusions Recovery of elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy activity has been better in South West England than in other regions. Day case rates may be important if ICBs in other regions are to increase activity levels.

Manager’s perspective on workers’ participation in management: a scenario-based study on Indian organizations

PurposeThis paper aims to gain insight into managers' perspectives on the concept and practice of workers' participation in management (WPM) in Indian organizations. WPM is a critical ingredient in organizational effectiveness. However, the most fundamental aspects of WPM, such as the attitudes, expectations of managers and the factors facilitating or hindering the participation process, are less explored. This paper attempts to answer those questions concerning WPM in the context of Indian organizations.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses data from 138 managers of Indian public and private sector organizations. Data were collected through an online survey as well as through semi-structured interviews. The study explores potential benefits, roadblocks and supporters from the managers' perspective. Further, to test the hypothesis, the author used multiple regression analysis.FindingsThe paper demonstrates managers' perception of workers' participation at the board level as the most beneficial and supportive compared to joint consultation and joint decision-making; however, at the same time, it is the one having the most roadblocks in the present Indian Labour laws. Workers, unions and managers' lack of legislative support and intention fuel the fire. The study also found that implementation of WPM is primarily based on statutory norms, and public sector managers are more willing to take the workers on board than managers of private sector organizations.Practical implicationsThis research is of practical significance as it extracts new visions for policymakers in India already planning to implement four new labor codes, namely, wages, industrial relations, social security and occupational safety, health and working conditions. The data from the study will facilitate the Indian labor ministry to lay down policy decisions concerning WPM. Further, the government can acclimatize this analysis to plug the ambiguities in the present WPM system.Originality/valueTo the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to give insights into the manager's perspective regarding the WPM using a scenario-based approach. In addition, this paper offers valuable suggestions for policymakers to restructure and streamline the country's existing and overlapping labor laws.

Boards and CSR: exploring the individual perceptions of non-executive directors

ABSTRACT This study explores how non-executive directors (NEDs) perceive board debates around corporate social responsibility (CSR) and how they make sense of these perceptions. It also investigates how individual NEDs view their role and the role of the board in governing CSR. To these ends, we conducted in-depth interviews with NEDs serving on the boards of French listed companies. The interviewees indicated that CSR was seldom discussed substantively at the board level during the interview period and that NEDs had different levels of comfort with this, depending on their personal views on CSR. To explain our findings, we draw on institutional logics, particularly the agentic approach to logics. More specifically, we detail how NEDs’ diverging views on CSR and on the roles of NEDs and boards in governing CSR reflected their different framings of the relationship between the profit-maximising and sustainability logics and distinguish three such framings: competitive, competing-yet-facilitative and additive. Moreover, we demonstrate that the interplay between board members’ framings shaped CSR board debates and, therefore, the extent to which the sustainability logic was accommodated at the board level. The NEDs’ narratives point to two other factors driving the extent of CSR board debates: external pressures from the business environment to act in line with the sustainability logic and the presence/absence of a CSR-board committee.

A Practical Technique Using Planar Coils to Make the Radiated Immunity of Specific Integrated Circuit Pins Less Dependent From PCB Orientation

In this article, an inexpensive passive approach is proposed, both making the immunity of integrated circuits (ICs) less dependent on their orientation and controlling the immunity of specific pins. This technique is based on the introduction of planar 2-D coils surrounding the microcontroller ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\boldsymbol{\mu }$</tex-math></inline-formula> C) at the printed circuit board (PCB) level. The importance of the coil physical parameters (geometry, resonant frequency, and orientation) as well as the interference frequency is investigated, evaluating the difference in the magnetic field at the pin of interest in two opposite orientations (i.e., 0 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^\circ$</tex-math></inline-formula> and 180 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^\circ$</tex-math></inline-formula> ). The effectiveness of the proposed technique is demonstrated in full-wave simulations and measurements, showcasing the provided immunity improvement through monitoring the behavior of the sensitive pins. Besides, this article strongly recommends IC designers not to place power supply pins close to the corners of the <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\boldsymbol{\mu }$</tex-math></inline-formula> C package due to the presence of the highest local tangential magnetic field when no structures are implemented. Coil orientation is shown to be the key adjustment parameter to enhance the immunity of any specific pin. The resonant frequency of the coils is found to be less relevant than its geometry and distance with respect to the <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\boldsymbol{\mu }$</tex-math></inline-formula> C pins. The proposed technique using the octagonal coils was also found to be effective in a wide frequency range (from 210 to at least 500 MHz). Compared to a no-coil case, an immunity enhancement of 74.2% (27.5%) is achieved in measurement (simulation) by the addition of an octagonal coil to the PCB, which clearly demonstrates the relevance of that simple approach for practical use in highly sensitive integrated electronics.

Regulation and the trickle-down effect of women in leadership roles

We use an event study design to provide evidence demonstrating how the trickle-down effect is influenced by the introduction of regulation on board gender diversity. In 2011, a new regulation was suddenly introduced for firms listed on the United Kingdom’s FTSE 350 index, the regulatory intervention put forward recommendations to increase the representation of women on the boards of FTSE 350 listed firms – the most critical recommendation was a voluntary target of having twenty-five percent of board positions held by women. We argue this change in regulation represents an exogenous shock, we utilize this shock to investigate how regulation influences the trickle-down of women’s representation from board level to senior management. We find evidence of a positive relationship between women on boards and women’s representation in senior management during the pre-regulation era – otherwise referred to as the trickle-down effect. However, the introduction of regulation had the unintended consequence of weakening the relationship between women on boards and women in senior management. Our results suggest that the trickle-down effect varies between different contexts and settings. We discuss the implications for research and practice.

Board diversity and corporate propensity to R&D spending

Drawing on collective contributions and group performance perspectives, this paper examines the role of board diversity in firms' R&D investment decisions. Building on a fault-line argument about a team's demographic attributes, this study also decomposes the impact of demographic and cognitive diversity on R&D spending. The study sample contains UK data of non-financial companies covering the period between 2005 and 2018. We employ panel data analysis techniques and control for potential endogeneity issues through the application of the two-step system Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) estimations. The findings demonstrate a positive and significant relationship between board diversity and level of corporate R&D spending. The findings also show cognitive diversity as significantly positively associated with corporate R&D investments. Demographic diversity, however, has an insignificant relationship with corporate spending on R&D. The results further show that demographic diversity negatively moderates the relationship between cognitive diversity and spending on R&D. Our main findings document that the board's attributes as a group significantly influence decisions of strategic importance such as, investment in R&D projects. The findings on sub-dimensions of board diversity imply that as compared to demographic diversity, functional/cognitive diversity is more relevant to strategic decisions and related outcomes. The study has practical implications for shareholders in documenting the importance of board diversity, and policy implications for regulators in highlighting the separate roles of behavioural and cognitive diversity in shaping firms' strategic investment decisions.

Striving for Diversity of Leadership: Governance in UK Higher Education Institutions

Diversity of membership on boards and governance bodies in a range of sectors have been shown to be a key element in successful boards and effectively lead, monitor and advise their executive. Much progress has been made on improving gender balance on boards, including in universities and higher education institutions (HEI). However, the (scant) literature on HEI boards highlights that higher education or university boards in the UK need to do more to tackle all the other forms of under-representation where limited progress has been made on diversity, other than gender. This paper thus has two main aims, the first to locate the work on developing the diversity of UK university boards within the wider (corporate) theory and literature in this field. This is because the literature in the corporate sector is better established and therefore there is something to learn from practice in this area. The second aim is to develop a practical toolkit to expedite board diversity in higher education to bring it in line with other sectors to enable them to reflect what the OECD believe should be the role of universities: which is to be at the cutting edge of leading societal change.&#x0D; This paper reports on quantitative and qualitative data collected and analysed in order to develop a practical Board Diversity Toolkit - the first national scheme of its kind. Data were collected from 44 HEIs, representing a third of the UK’s HEIs and 104 governors to inform the development of the Toolkit. The paper discusses the issues raised in the data that might be a key barrier to achieving diversity and addressing chronic under-representation in UK Boards. This centred around deep-seated attitudes on how diversity may compromise the skills needed on Boards and importantly how to unseat these ingrained (often unconscious) attitudes if we are to achieve genuine change at Board levels. The Board Diversity Toolkit, designed as an output of work, could play a key role in changing such attitudes and develop the UK HEI sector in terms of conducting board business better, as well as meeting the need to be representative of staff and student bodies.

Trigger events and change agents: how non-profit boards improve their governance

Despite active research on the performance of boards of directors, very little scholarship exists on how they intentionally recognise and act on the need for governance change. This gap has resulted in weak conceptual guidance for researchers and practitioners alike who are interested in change management. This article employs a multiple case study phenomenological analysis of member-serving organisations based in the United States that achieved substantive change at the board level, sometimes reshaping their boards and cultures in profound ways. Focused on the catalysts, agents and processes of governance change, the findings generally support the prevailing contingency theory perspective by describing patterns of change, stakeholder behaviour and goals that varied considerably from case to case. A change management lens is weakly supported in finding limited patterns in how leaders made change happen. A discussion follows of other potential conceptual lenses that may help explain successful strategic change management in non-profit boards.

The impact of BLER on the corporate activity in the UE

Motivation: Since the 1970s, there has been recorded a significant scope of the employee representation in corporate governance bodies, as the earlier German solutions have been popularized in many European countries. Since then, there has been a discussion about the impact of this representation on the activities of companies, their economic results, their value, etc. The research conducted on this subject does not provide a clear answer on this topic.Aim: The article aims to determine the impact of board level employee representation (BLER) on the activities of companies. The latest findings in this area, based on the results of empirical research shall be considered. New types of BLER impact on the value of companies in various phases of the business cycle and on preventing tax avoidance shall be presented. The objective of the article is also to provide the governments of particular countries with additional arguments in favour of introducing or expanding the institution of employee representation. In the longer term, these arguments should encourage the EU authorities to try to develop and adopt a directive on this subject, obliging member states to introduce or extend BLER.Results: The controversy over the influence of BLER on the company’s operations has not diminished. However, taking into account the entirety of such an impact (ideological, economic and social results), there has been an increasing number of arguments in favour of a positive assessment of such an impact. They are provided by the latest, extensive empirical research conducted on this subject, covering several dozen countries. They indicate that BLER has a positive effect on the stabilization of the company in times of economic downturn (recession), that it affects the adoption of a long-term development strategy by companies, etc. The research also shows that representation of the employees in boards prevents companies from tax avoidance. Its effectiveness correlates with the scope of such representation.

Does Board Gender Diversity Moderatively Affect the Relationship Between Business Characteristics and Corporate Sustainability Performance?

Business sustainability is a process of increasing the positive impacts, while at the same time, is expected reducing negative effects of operations in order to achieve sustainable economic, social, and environmental performance. This study aims to examine how company characteristics, company size and indutry type, impact corporate sustainability performance refers to Triple Bottom Line concept. Further, whether the impacts are moderated by board gender diversity. Using partial least square – structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to asses the panel data consists of 18 Indonesian companies from participant of Asia Sustainability Reporting Rating (ASRR) extracted on National Center Sustainability Reporting (NCSR) website during observation period 2017–2019. The empirical finding reveals that company characteristics – size and industry type, both significantly impact the performance of corporate sustainability in different ways. This shows a solid evidence that stakeholder demands has shifted business behavior through implementation of sustanability practices. In moderating role, the low persentage women on board shows no influence on corporate sustainability performance, as presence of female directors on corporate boards level only compliance role as corporate governance mechanism. Hence, we should consider to increase the proportion of women on board level as female chairperson offers new perspectives and skills set in business decision making process to enhance sustainable value in the long run.