Purpose

This paper examines how the board of directors' attributes in terms of educational and professional backgrounds –that is board capital-, and demographics influence institutional ownership across listed companies in Latin America.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on unique hand-collected information of directors' educational and professional attributes across 427 firms in Latin America, the authors analyze the effects of directors' educational attainment, professional experience and demographic diversification on institutional investors' holdings.

Findings

Results show that grey investor ownership favors directors with graduate studies and diverse boards regarding gender and nationality. Independent investors value the directors' professional experience like former founders of a firm. Grey investors are more concerned with firm corporate governance mechanisms, consistent with the agency view. In contrast, independent institutional investors focus on business opportunities following the board of directors' resource-based view.

Research limitations/implications

This study shows that board capital becomes a key determinant for institutional ownership in emerging markets.

Originality/value

This study extends previous literature on institutional investor preferences by providing empirical evidence that firm board capital becomes a collective asset that is central for institutional investors' investment choices for an emerging market case.

中文翻译：

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董事属性和机构投资者选择：拉丁美洲的证据

目的

本文研究了董事会在教育和专业背景方面的属性（即董事会资本）和人口统计特征如何影响拉丁美洲上市公司的机构所有权。

设计/方法/方法

基于手工收集的拉丁美洲 427 家公司董事教育和专业属性的独特信息，作者分析了董事的教育程度、专业经验和人口多样化对机构投资者持股的影响。

发现

结果表明，灰色投资者所有权有利于具有研究生学历的董事和不同性别和国籍的董事会。独立投资者像公司前创始人一样重视董事的专业经验。灰色投资者更关注稳固的公司治理机制，与机构观点一致。相比之下，独立机构投资者则遵循董事会的资源基础观点，关注商机。

研究限制/影响

本研究表明，董事会资本成为新兴市场机构所有权的关键决定因素。

原创性/价值

本研究通过提供实证证据证明公司董事会资本成为集体资产，对于新兴市场案例中机构投资者的投资选择至关重要，从而扩展了先前关于机构投资者偏好的文献。