The board structure and R&D investment — A study on the Chinese listed IT companies

Abstract

With the data of the Chinese IT listed companies from 2007 to 2010, this paper investigates the relationship between company's board structure and its R&D investment. The empirical study's result shows that increasing in the size of independent directors, and the board members' stock share are the incentives for the firm to invest in R&D, while increasing the size of board and the relative elder of board members will have a negative effect in firm's R&D investment.