Outsider board activity, ownership structure and firm value : evidence from Korea

Using a sample of publicly listed firm in Korea from 2002 to 2006, this article examines the impact of board monitoring on firm value and productivity. We use outsider's attendance of board meetings as a proxy for board monitoring. Consistent with the commitment hypothesis, we find that outsider's attendance rate increases firm value, suggesting that attending board meeting itself is a strong signal that reflects outsider's intention to monitor insiders. While ownership of controlling shareholders negatively affects firm value, this relationship is not moderated by increased monitoring by outsiders. Our findings provide further evidence that the outside director system is less effective in chaebol-affiliated firms. Results also indicate that the effect of outsider's board monitoring activity on investor's valuation of the firm is greater than on productivity improvement of the firm. Our conclusions are robust for possible endogeneity in the relationship between firm value and board attendance by outside directors.

A multi-touch notice board fostering social interaction

We report on an alternative OCGM interface for a bulletin board, where a user can pin a note or a drawing, and actually shares contents. Exploiting direct and continuous manipulations, opposite to discrete gestures, to explore containers, the proposed interface supports a more natural and immediate interaction. It manages also the presence of different simultaneous users, allowing for the creation of local multimedia contents, the connection to social networks, providing a suitable working environment for cooperative and collaborative tasks in a multi-touch setup, such as touch-tables, interactive walls or multimedia boards

Exploring board dynamics : director participation during board meetings

Despite board meetings representing the main arena where directors discharge their duties and make critical corporate decisions, we know little about what occurs in the boardroom. Consequently, there is increasing academic interest in understanding how meetings are run and how directors participate. This study contributes to this emerging literature by exploring the impact of board meeting arrangements on directors’ interactions and perceptions of meeting effectiveness. We video-taped board meetings at two Australian corporations operating in the same industry and use an in-depth analysis of interactions and board processes to reveal that a rather small difference in meeting arrangements (i.e. the timing and length of meetings) had a significant influence on interaction patterns. Specifically, given significant amounts of environmental turbulence in the sector, director inclusiveness and participation were reduced as time pressure increased due to shorter meetings, lowering director perceptions of meeting effectiveness.

Lobbying the auditing practices board : analysis of responses to the expanded audit report

In 1993 the Auditing Practice Board (APB) in the United Kingdom issued Statement of Auditing Standard 600, Auditors’ Reports on Financial Statements. The new expanded audit report was issued in an attempt to reduce the audit expectations gap. Prior to the issuing of this standard the APB issued a Consultative Document in 1991 and an Exposure Draft in 1992. In this paper we investigate the comments made to the APB by respondents to these two documents. We found that a number of respondents doubted whether the new standard was of itself sufficient to reduce the expectations gap. In addition, we found that where respondents made substantive suggestions for changes to the proposed standard these generally were not implemented by the APB.

Who selects the 'right' directors? An examination of the association between board selection, gender diversity and outcomes

Using a sample of companies from the top 500 listed firms in Australia, we investigate whether the presence of a designated nomination committee and female representation on the nomination committee affect board gender diversity. We also examine whether gender diversity on the board affects firm risk and financial performance. We find that board gender diversity is significantly and positively associated with the presence of a designated nomination committee and that female representation on the nomination committee is a significant explanatory factor of increasing board gender diversity following the release of the 2010 Australian Securities Exchange Corporate Governance Council (ASXCGC) recommendations. Further, our results support the business case for board gender diversity as we find greater gender diversity moderates excessive firm risk which in turn improves firms’ financial performance. Our results are robust after correcting for selection bias and controlling for other board, firm and industry characteristics.

Online Gaming in Context : the Social and Cultural Significance of Online Games

There is little question of the social, cultural and economic importance of video games in the world today, with gaming now rivalling the movie and music sectors as a major leisure industry and pastime. The significance of video games within our everyday lives has certainly been increased and shaped by new technologies and gaming patterns, including the rise of home-based games consoles, advances in mobile telephone technology, the rise in more 'sociable' forms of gaming, and of course the advent of the Internet. This book explores the opportunities, challenges and patterns of gameplay and sociality afforded by the Internet and online gaming. Bringing together a series of original essays from both leading and emerging academics in the field of game studies, many of which employ new empirical work and innovative theoretical approaches to gaming, this book considers key issues crucial to our understanding of online gaming and associated social relations, including: patterns of play, legal and copyright issues, player production, identity construction, gamer communities, communication, patterns of social exclusion and inclusion around religion, gender and disability, and future directions in online gaming.

Social networking and digital gaming media convergence : Classification and its consequences for appropriation

Abstract Within the field of Information Systems, a good proportion of research is concerned with the work organisation and this has, to some extent, restricted the kind of application areas given consideration. Yet, it is clear that information and communication technology deployments beyond the work organisation are acquiring increased importance in our lives. With this in mind, we offer a field study of the appropriation of an online play space known as Habbo Hotel. Habbo Hotel, as a site of media convergence, incorporates social networking and digital gaming functionality. Our research highlights the ethical problems such a dual classification of technology may bring. We focus upon a particular set of activities undertaken within and facilitated by the space – scamming. Scammers dupe members with respect to their ‘Furni’, virtual objects that have online and offline economic value. Through our analysis we show that sometimes, online activities are bracketed off from those defined as offline and that this can be related to how the technology is classified by members – as a social networking site and/or a digital game. In turn, this may affect members’ beliefs about rights and wrongs. We conclude that given increasing media convergence, the way forward is to continue the project of educating people regarding the difficulties of determining rights and wrongs, and how rights and wrongs may be acted out with respect to new technologies of play online and offline.

Gambling & gaming : power relations in dispute resolution

Who, ultimately, has power? Is it the senior executive with his finger on the off switch, is it the users themselves who make the decision to participate and contribute financially, or is it those who report on the actions of the company with the ability to reach large numbers of existing and potential players? In both the gambling and gaming industries, power is up for grabs. This work undertakes to consider how norms are formed in online gaming communities; that is, how the developers and players negotiate amongst themselves both how the game will operate. Also considered is how to resolve disputes that arise, and what power and limitations each side has when they need to make an impact – from developers switching off the server, to players quitting en-mass or causing disruption within the environment (using the recent example of Eve Online). Outside of the direct sphere of the game however a third party lurks – commentators. These may take the form of well established review sites, community forums or, in the case of the gambling industry, dispute resolution services but their power stake is clear – by publicising and interpreting the acts of both developers and players, they are in a position to influence whether current players stick with a company, whether new players join a company and how the company is perceived in the wider community.

Enterprise Business Technology Governance: Three Competencies to Build Board Digital Leadership Capability.

The competent leadership of digital transformation needs to involve the board of directors. The reported lack of such capability in boards is becoming a pressing issue. A part of leadership in such transformation is the board of director’s competence to lead Enterprise Business Technology Governance (EBTG). In this paper we take the position that EBTG competencies are essential in boards, because competent EBTG has been shown to contribute to increased revenue, profit, and returns. We update and expand on the results of a multi-method approach to the development of a set of three board of director competencies needed for effective EBTG.

Demographic faultlines in boards : impact of diversity and board size

Negative board diversity-organizational outcomes research findings have highlighted the importance of studying board demographic faultlines. Based on research gaps, this study focuses on gender diversity, age diversity, board size and faultlines formation in corporate boards. It proposes a positive linear diversity-faultlines relationship based on self-categorization and social identity theories, interaction effects of gender diversity and age diversity on faultlines based on contingency theories, and a U-shaped board size-faultlines strength relationship. The hypotheses were tested in 288 large companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange using archival data. The results provided partial support for the interaction effects relationships and support to the U-shaped board size-faultlines strength relationship. The findings indicate that boards with low levels of age diversity experience a negative linear relationship between gender diversity and faultlines such that higher representation of women leads to weaker faultlines. The results also suggest that small- and large-sized boards experience stronger faultlines strength than medium-sized board. These results inform practice and underline implications of board demographic diversity and board size.

An observational analysis of the impact of board dynamics and directors’ participation on perceived board effectiveness

This study addresses calls for closer examination of board dynamics by offering an inside view of director interactions. Video-observations of three board meetings at each of two Australian corporations matched with director interviews and secondary data reveal distinct patterns of director interactions, their sources of variation and impact on perceived board effectiveness. Our data reveal that director interactions are multi-dimensional and dynamic: while group interactions across agenda items are similar, with a few directors leading the discussion, the contributing directors change across items. Moreover, directors’ inclusiveness and evenness of participation are associated with higher perceptions of board effectiveness. Last, we find that director interactions change with the nature of the items, board climate and board meeting arrangements. The study contributes to the literature by moving beyond the individual-level analysis of directors’ skills or independence, and offering a detailed view of how the joint group and individual dimensions of board dynamics affect board functioning.

Board monitoring and the balanced scorecard in nonprofits : challenges in realising potential

Directors of nonprofits in most countries have legal responsibility for monitoring organisational performance (Brody 2010), although there is typically little guidance on how this should occur. The balanced scorecard (BSC) (Kaplan & Norton, 1996, 2001) potentially provides boards with a monitoring tool (Kaplan $ Norton, 2006; Lorsch, 2002). The BSC is intended to help integrate performance measurement, performance management and strategy implmentation (Kaplan 2009). The scorecards is balanced in that it should incorporate both financial and non-financial measures, external and internal perspectives, short and long-term objectives and both lagging and leading indicators. It is a relatively simple tool, but with potentially profound implications for directing board attention and sbusequent action (Ocasio, 1997; Salterio, 2012).

A study of safety leadership and safety governance for board members and senior executives

This thesis is an investigation of the fields of leadership and corporate governance in the context of workplace safety. The research has made a contribution by defining four criteria of safety leadership and applying these criteria to board members, senior executives and written communications. The thesis outlines the findings of two studies; the first is an analysis of public disclosures in ASX200 annual reports and CSR reports, and the second comprises two case studies of large Australian companies including interviews with board members and senior executives. The concept of safety governance is defined and a safety governance framework is developed.

Rethinking board composition: Balancing competence and compatibility in director selection

Board composition is critical to board effectiveness. Shaping an effective board begins with the selection of directors. While much attention has been paid to the skills and qualifications directors require, there has been less focus on the necessity for board members to interact and work well together. This exploratory study offers insights into what qualities directors look for when selecting new members and the approach adopted to identify and select them. The findings of 10 in-depth interviews with Australian directors suggest new members are selected both on competencies and compatibility. Yet not all selection approaches adequately assess candidates for these two criteria. As a result many appointments fail to realise the selection criteria reducing capacity to reach its full potential.