Research On The Impact Of Board Heterogeneity On Investment Efficiency

Investment decision-making,as one of the core financial decisions of an enterprise,has an important impact on the future cash flow of the enterprise,and is related to the survival and development of the enterprise.However,under the increasingly severe international environment,the investment efficiency of listed companies is not optimistic.The principal-agent conflict and information asymmetry caused by the separation of ownership and management rights are considered to be the main reasons for low investment efficiency.The imperfect capital market,lack of corporate governance and financing constraints also reduce the investment efficiency of enterprises.How to improve the investment efficiency has become an urgent problem to be solved.As the decision-making body of enterprises,the role of the board of directors in investment activities is obvious.Previous studies mostly focused on the impact of board characteristics on investment efficiency,but less on the impact of heterogeneity of board team on investment efficiency.According to the high-echelon theory,the differences among board members will affect the effective functioning of the board of directors,and then affect the effect of investment decision-making.However,there is still a lack of in-depth research on the relationship between board heterogeneity and investment efficiency in academic circles,which needs to be further deepened.In order to further explore the relationship between board heterogeneity and investment efficiency,based on the data of A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2012 to 2017,this paper chooses five dimensions of board heterogeneity(age,gender,tenure,career background and learning)on the basis of principal-agent theory,high-echelon theory,group decision-making theory and resourcebased theory.Through theoretical analysis and empirical research,statistical analysis and hypothesis test using SPSS 20.0 statistical software,the following conclusions are drawn: the increase of gender and professional background heterogeneity of board of directors can promote investment efficiency;the lower the heterogeneity of board tenure,the higher the investment efficiency;the higher the degree of human capital of board of directors,the more it can promote investment efficiency.The improvement of investment efficiency is not related to the age and academic heterogeneity of board of directors.According to the research conclusion,in order to improve the efficiency of investment,this paper puts forward the following suggestions: firstly,actively appoint female directors and expand gender heterogeneity;secondly,optimize the term structure and narrow the term difference;thirdly,improve the heterogeneity of career background and actively appoint directors with compound background;fourthly,improve the overall educational level and encourage directors to actively study.Finally,we should establish a strict mechanism for selecting directors to enhance the rationality of the selection of directors.