11.2.3 Conclusion

National culture is the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes members in one group from those in another group or society or country. This description of culture is based on the definition given by Hofstede (1984a; b), whose cultural model is used as the basis for relating national culture to board independence in this study. Distribution of power, uncertainty avoidance, individualism versus collectivism and masculinity versus femininity are the four bipolar sets of cultural values introduced by Hofstede. Countries with certain cultural characteristics are more inclined to staff boards with independent directors than other countries. The research question about the aim of independence must be answered with this information in mind.

(Consideration 11.1) The findings stress that the attributed importance of board independence is partially dependent on the culture of the country or region in which the company is active. Therefore, the level of board independence is not only affected by corporate governance codes, law, economic circumstances and company characteristics, but by national culture as well. Research by Li and Harrison shows that individualism, uncertainty avoidance and power distance are positively correlated with board independence. Masculinity is negatively correlated with boardindependence. Cultural characteristics explain that some societies demand more independent supervision within companies, whereas in other countries this demand is less prominent. Demands, which originate from national culture, lead to or have influence on the levels of board independence. The aim of board independence is therefore to fulfil demands from society or the people within the society with respect to monitoring.