Purpose This study aims to investigate the joint effect of foreign directors (FDs) and firm performance on the corporate strategic change. Design/methodology/approach A theoretical framework linking foreign directors, firm performance and strategic change is proposed and tested. This study uses a sample of longitudinal data from 958 US listed firms over the period 2010–2018. The basic model of study first tests whether there is a direct relationship between FDs and level of strategic change. It then incorporates firm performance as a moderating variable, testing its effect on the relationship between foreign director and strategic change. Findings Consistent with the study’s expectations, the empirical findings indicate that FDs rich in appropriate experience are associated with superior strategic change, measured both in terms of variation in firm strategy over time and deviation from industry norms. The findings confirm that FDs are a salient driver of strategic change. The strength of the effect, however, depends on the firm performance. Research limitations/implications This paper has implications for effective global leadership development based on international appointments. First, directors can benefit from being assigned to work in foreign countries so that they are exposed to a wide range of experiences and can learn to overcome culture shock. Second, posting directors to foreign countries can improve their international knowledge and enhance various competencies related to creativity, leadership and problem-solving. By demonstrating that the board’s characteristics can play a role in corporate strategy development, the current study thus has implications for both study and practice with regard to board composition. The number of seats on any given board is finite, and each individual director is thus expected to not only monitor top management but also to apply their knowledge and relevant experience in service to the company’s ambitions. Except in cases where high firm performance leads to strategic persistence, the results suggest that greater levels of FDs correlate positively with strategic change. Practical implications The practical implications of this paper pertain to director recruitment and selection. First, the findings echo support for the inclusion of members with greater levels of international experience on boards and top management teams. It seems that, despite the importance of this characteristic, directors at US companies often lack substantial experience abroad (Carpenter and Westphal, 2001). A possible reason for this could be that internationally experienced employees otherwise lack the social capital necessary for promotion to directorships because of time spent stationed away from the firm’s headquarters. It is thus essential for companies to create networking opportunities for directors assigned to foreign offices. Originality/value Although previous research has provided some insight into how chief executive officer international experience can manifest in strategic change, this understanding remains far from complete for the members of board of directors. Furthermore, the topic of firm performance as a potential moderating influence remains underexplored. The aim of this study, therefore, is to assess the impact of FDs among directors on corporate strategic change while taking into account the possible confounding role of firm performance in this relationship.

We develop a theoretical model based on several theories, mainly pecking order theory and theory of information economics, as well as on theoretical arguments provided by economic sociology and psychology to investigate for the first time the impact of the presence of a foreign board member on capital structure. The sample of study covers 3773 non-financial U.S. firms and includes 23,196 observations over the period from 2010 to 2018. We used pooled OLS, fixed effects, random effects, and the general method of moments (GMM) in order to analyze the impact of foreign directors on capital structure after controlling for a range of factors, including size, year, and industry effects. The results of this empirical analysis support the proposed hypothesis. Of particular note is the finding that the proportion of foreign directors on the board correlates negatively with debt structure. Furthermore, we demonstrate that our findings hold up in the face of all appropriate robustness checks. Our study contributes to the existing literature by including an international dimension of board diversity, specifically the influence of foreign directors on corporate capital structure. We argue that increasing international diversity in the boardroom improves both the quantity and quality of the information exchange between insiders and shareholders, thereby reducing adverse selection costs.

This paper investigates the impact of four drivers of Governance diversity, namely gender, tenure, age, and educational attainment, on strategic direction and variation. It then incorporates corporate financial results as a moderating variable, testing how it impacts the links between board diversity and strategic variation. Strategic variation or change is assessed based on measuring deviation from past strategies. Our sample consists of 5011 firm‐year observations from 930 firms in the United States between 2010 and 2018. The findings indicate that the four drivers of Governance diversity show a positive relationship between the corporate board of directors and strategic variation/change. However, the strength of the effect depends on overall firm results/performance.

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