Are Top Management Networking Skills Valuable? An Empirical Investigation of US Companies in the Context of Residual Income Valuation Model

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of networking skills on company value by using the residual income model. We examine U.S. companies that constitute Standard and Poor’s 1500 index for the period 2002-2015 and we provide evidence that networking skills are significant part of company value. The evidence is robust after taking account of endogeneity. This study links the value relevance concept with social capital and provides support to resource dependence theory and social exchange theory.

Keywords: Boardroom networking, Management skills, Corporate Governance, Valuation, Residual Income Model, Panel Data, GMM estimation