董事會多樣性與盈餘管理──兼論家族企業的調節角色

Board Diversity and Earnings Management--Moderating Role of Family Firm

本研究利用2010至2015年間803間臺灣證券交易所上市非金融產業公司的資料，檢驗董事會多樣性對盈餘管理的影響。既有研究已探討公司特性、股權結構與個別董事會多樣性維度對於盈餘管理的影響，本研究考慮八個個別董事會多樣性維度以建構整體的董事會多樣性指標，基於代理問題的角度探討高多樣性程度的董事會，是否有助於增進董事會獨立性與監督效率，進而降低盈餘管理程度。本研究更進一步探究家族公司是否因代理問題較為嚴重，而弱化了董事會多樣性降低盈餘管理程度的能力。實證結果顯示，董事會多樣性程度愈高，盈餘管理程度愈低，但是在家族公司中，董事會多樣性降低盈餘管理的程度是相對較小的。

This study employs the data of 803 non-financial listed firms on the Taiwan Stock Exchange from 2010 to 2015 to examine the impacts of board diversity on earnings management. While existing studies have discussed the impacts of firm characteristics, ownership structure, and individual board diversity dimensions on earnings management, this study considers eight individual board diversity dimensions to construct an overall board diversity index and then examine the effects of overall board diversity index on earnings management. Based on the perspective of agency theory, this study examines whether greater degree of board diversity helps to improve the board’s independence and functioning efficiency and then reduce the degree of earnings management. This study further explores whether family firms play weakening role in the relationship between board diversity and earnings management. The empirical result shows that the higher the degree of board diversity, the lower the degree of earnings management. Yet, in family firms, the effects of board diversity on reducing earnings management is smaller.