Business Commons^™

Does Institutional Ownership Affect Information Sharing With Independent Board Members?, Deborah D. Smith, Heidi H. Meier, Pervaiz Alam

Business Faculty Publications

Research Question This is an investigation of board independence to determine whether management shares information with the board, or withholds information to retain autonomy. A key contribution is to examine the interaction of institutional ownership with the main test variables to determine whether institutional governance influences the information environment as board independence is increased. Research Findings The results show that information asymmetry decreases internally and increases externally as board independence increases, yet institutional ownership appears to moderate or reverse this relationship. The following variables are used to explain why managers of firms are likely to have more information than outsiders: …