Influence of the board structure and corporate control on the CEO turnover of firms in Brazil

Abstract

The separation of ownership and control in firms has emphasized the role of the Board of Directors, which is responsible for electing, removing, monitoring and evaluating the actions of the management team, whose main agent is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). In this context, this paper analyzes the influence of the board structure and Corporate Control on CEO turnover of Brazilian listed companies. The sample consists in 111 firms listed on Bolsa, Brasil, Balcão (B3) IBrX100 index between 2009 to 2013. We employed logistic regressions and observed evidence that the likelihood of CEO turnover increased when the company had low stock returns and/or profitability. Board independence did not influence the CEO turnover sensitivity to performance. Other main results are that CEO duality was negatively related to CEO turnover. Ownership concentration decreased the sensitivity of CEO turnover to performance.

Keywords

• Governança corporativa
• Turnover do CEO
• Dualidade de funções
• Conselheiros independentes
• Controle acionário