Variable

Description

Risk-taking

Market-adjusted volatility of firm-level earnings

ROA

Return on total assets

Adv_dire

The percentage of advisory directors in board of directors

Firm_size

Natural log of total assets

Growth

The increase rate of business revenue

Lev

Ratio of total debt to total assets

Age

Firm age measured in years

First

The proportion of outstanding shares owned by the largest shareholder

Dual

Equals one when the CEO also serves as board chair, zero otherwise

Board_size

The natural log of the number of directors

Indep

The percentage of independent directors in board of directors