An investigation of board directors’ absence and its determinants in the Malaysian stock market

This paper examines the relation between directors’ absence in board meetings as an indicator of directors’ busyness with possible determinants of director absence on the constituent companies of FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI index from 2005 to 2008. This study has found board size as the strongest determinant of directors’ absence. As the size grows, there is higher probability of directors to be absent from board meetings. This study found a board size of 9 and less as an optimum board size. We also found that the more independent directors on the board, the less absence they made. The results showed that the number of multiple directorships a director holds, number of annual meetings, age, and ethnicity of the director are not significant determinants.