Firms with busy boards, those in which a majority of outside directors hold three or more directorships, are associated with weak corporate governance. These firms exhibit lower market-to-book ratios, weaker profitability, and lower sensitivity of CEO turnover to firm performance. Independent...

We present evidence that busy outside directors are associated with weak corporate governance based on a sample of U.S. industrial firms from 1989 to 1995. When a majority of outside directors serve on three or more boards, firms exhibit lower market-to-book ratios as well as weaker operating...

Authors' description of their article: Whereas the gains to target shareholders are usually large in tender offers, managers of takeover targets can have incentives to defeat such offers. We examine whether the presence of independent outside directors on boards of tender offer targets help to...