Director Networks, Political Connections, and Earnings Quality in Malaysia

• Main Authors: Effiezal Aswadi Abdul Wahab, -, Mohd Faizal Jamaludin, -, Dian Agustia, -, Iman Harymawan, -
• Format: Article PeerReviewed
• Language: English; Indonesian; Indonesian; English
• Published: Cambridge University Press 2020
• Subjects: H Social Sciences; HF Commerce; HF5546-5548.6 Office management; HS2301-2460.7 Political and "patriotic" societies
• Online Access: https://repository.unair.ac.id/110210/8/Iman%20Harymawan_Artikel107_Director%20Networks.pdf; https://repository.unair.ac.id/110210/2/Dian%20Agustia_PeerReview012.pdf; https://repository.unair.ac.id/110210/6/Iman%20Harymawan_Peer%20Review107.pdf; https://repository.unair.ac.id/110210/7/Iman%20H_Similarity107_director%20networks.pdf; https://repository.unair.ac.id/110210/; https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/management-and-organization-review/article/director-networks-political-connections-and-earnings-quality-in-malaysia/F09A7E2C52427BE1CFC0AFA6848F8AAE; https://doi.org/10.1017/mor.2020.26
• Institution: Universitas Airlangga

This article investigates the relationship between director networks and earnings quality in Malaysia. Using data on 4,416 individual directors who served on the boards of 745 firms listed on Bursa, Malaysia during 2011, we map the entire network of directors and generate measures to reflect the size and quality of information within the network. We find a negative and significant relationship between the overall connectedness of a director's network and the firm's earnings quality. In addition, we find a negative and significant relationship between the political connectedness of the director's network and earnings quality. Our results are robust for different measures of earnings quality.