Research on the Impact of the Independent Director System on the Independence of the Board of Directors

Abstract

In the context of China’s rapidly evolving capital market, the proliferation of listed companies has been a salient phenomenon. The quality of corporate governance has emerged as a pivotal factor in determining the success or failure of these entities. Research by Balsmeier et al. (2022) indicates that the greater the independence of a listed company’s board of directors, the higher its innovation output (both in terms of quantity and quality of patents) ^[1]. This finding suggests a strong correlation between the performance of a company and the independence of its board. The present study has selected listed companies on the A-share market of the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2013 as the subjects of its research. A sample of 960 companies was initially obtained from the CSMAR database. Following a rigorous financial data screening, a final sample of 944 valid companies was retained for further analysis.