The influence of board interlocks on the practice of voluntary disclosure in Brazilian companies

Abstract

The study investigates the influence of the board interlocks structure in the voluntary disclosure of publicly traded companies in Brazil. The social network analysis approach is used to capture and evaluate the level of relationship existing between companies due to the ties formed by members of the board of directors. Two hypotheses explore the measures of (i) degree centrality and (ii) betweenness centrality, which have the potential to describe the positioning of the actors in a network. The third hypothesis addresses the issue of bond quality (holes). The results suggest that the board structure of board interlocks increases the propensity of companies to report information of a voluntary nature in their annual reports. It is interpreted, therefore, that the board interlocks acts as a factor that favors the dissemination of practices of voluntary disclosure.

Keywords

• Board Interlocks
• Divulgação voluntária
• Análise de redes sociais