Characteristics of board of directors and performance of gem listed companies from the perspective of venture capital participation

Using the difference-in-differences (DID) model and taking the sample of companies listed from 2009 to 2014 on the Growth Enterprises Market (GEM) of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in China, this paper studies the impact of Venture Capital (VC) participation on board characteristics, which is measured by the chief executive officer (CEO) duality, the scale of the board of directors and the proportion of independent directors, and it also studies how the board characteristics influence the company performance. The findings are as follows: VC-backed GEM listed companies are more inclined to choose the mode of CEO duality and to have a larger board of directors and a higher proportion of independent directors, all of which are conducive to improving company performance