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Juan Ma
Assistant Professor of Strategy
Keywords
Inner Workings of Boards; Social Exchange Theory; Corporate Governance; Independent Directors; China; Corporate Governance; Corporate Governance across the World
Journal Article
Research summary: Although opinion conformity is believed to be commonly used by corporate elites to invoke reciprocity, it is hard to study in the context of corporate boards since boards are typically “black boxes.” Focusing on publicly traded companies in China, where disclosure of dissent is mandated, we show that dissent is associated with a breakdown of the social exchange relationship within boards. Specifically, dissent is more likely to occur when the board chair who appointed the independent director has left the board, or when the board “game” is reaching its last round, defined as a 60-day window before departure of the board chair or the director herself. Our findings lend considerable support to conceptualization of boards as a social exchange device.