We examine the impact of board tenure diversity on firm risk in 37 countries. Using a difference-in-differences design facilitated by corporate board reforms across the world, we find that board tenure diversity leads to lower stock return volatility. This effect is more pronounced among firms with longer board tenures, which are more likely to result in board entrenchment and weak monitoring. The positive impact of board tenure diversity on reducing firm risk is weakened in more individualistic and higher power distance cultures, due to the balancing act between group independence and cohesiveness. Further tests suggest the lower risk levels are likely due to that tenure-diverse boards tend to adopt less risky investment policies.

我们研究了董事会任期多元化对37个国家/地区公司风险的影响。使用全球公司董事会改革促进的差异设计，我们发现董事会任期差异导致较低的股票收益波动率。在董事会任期较长的公司中，这种影响更为明显，这很可能导致董事会纠缠和监督薄弱。由于群体独立性和凝聚力之间的平衡，在更多的个人主义和更高的权力距离文化中，董事会任期多元化对降低公司风险的积极影响被削弱。进一步的测试表明，较低的风险水平很可能是由于权属多元化董事会倾向于采取风险较小的投资政策。