Board of directors and firm risk - Evidence from the Finnish small- and mid-cap companies

This paper provides new evidence from the relationship between board attributes and firm risk. Previous literature has studied extensively the effect of board attributes on firm performance or shareholder value. However, firm risk is an important element of both of these, and thus it is important to study it. This study finds that board size has a significant negative relationship with firm risk. Additionally, board meeting activity and board ownership have positive relationship with the firm risk. Previous literature has found similar evidence on the relationship between board size and firm risk, but the findings considering the board meeting activity and board ownership are new to the existing corporate governance literature