Board Characteristics and Foreign Direct Investment in Public Listed Property Companies: A Malaysian Evidence

Abstract

The Malaysian government has encouraged the corporate sector to be seriously committed in supporting sustainable development. One of the elements in sustainable development is the inclusiveness of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the corporate sector. FDI plays an important role in the economy as it generates an economic growth by increasing the domestic capital formation and hence, promoting sustainability. This study examines the relationship of corporate governance characteristics on foreign direct investment among property public listed companies in Malaysia. Specifically, this study examines the effect of board of directors’ characteristic namely board size, board meeting, board independence and CEO-Chairman duality role on foreign direct investment of the property public listed companies. This study relies on content analysis on the annual reports of 50 public listed property companies in in Malaysia for year 2007-2016. The results show that board meetings and board independency have a significant positive relationship on foreign direct investment of the public listed property companies. However, the results show that board size and CEO-Chairman duality do not have a significant relationship on foreign direct investment of the public listed property companies. The findings in this study implicate the importance of the board of directors’ involvement in ensuring effective and efficient decisions related to foreign direct investment.