ABSTRACT

Three major director characteristics have been associated with board performance – independence, gender/gender diversity mix and multiple directorships. This study investigates the attendance practices of directors as a fourth director characteristic associated with director and board performance. It does so by investigating director attendance of listed companies where there is a full meeting attendance ‘roll-call’ disclosure regime, relative to a ‘brightline’ disclosure of attendance below 75%. Attendance data from Australia and the US are compared over the period 2001–2015. A comparison shows that Australian directors, on average, are 6 times more likely to attend fewer than 75% of their required board and committee meetings. This study provides previously undocumented analysis on the attendance practices of directors. The results have implications for the reporting framework of director attendance and suggest that in line with current regulatory thinking, a brightline approach has several policy advantages over a roll-call approach.

摘要

董事的三个主要特征与董事会绩效相关：独立性，性别/性别多样性组合和多重董事职位。这项研究调查了董事的出勤实践，这是与董事和董事会绩效相关的第四项董事特征。这样做是通过调查有完整会议出席率“唱名”披露制度的上市公司董事出席率来实现的，相对于“明示”出席率低于75％的披露率而言。比较了澳大利亚和美国在2001–2015年期间的出勤数据。比较表明，澳大利亚董事出席董事会和委员会所需会议的比例不到75％的可能性要高出6倍。这项研究提供了以前没有记录的关于董事出勤实践的分析。