외국인 투자자가 기업의 연구개발투자에 미치는 영향：여성 임원의 조절효과를 중심으로

[Purpose]In this paper, we examine whether the foreign investors ownership influences corporations’ research and development (R&D) investments. Above all, in the perspective of Environment, Society, and Governance (ESG), we focus on the additional influence of the diversity of boards of directors, measured by existence and ratio of female directors on boards of directors, on the association between foreign investors and R&D investments. [Methodology]We use 14,098 firm－year observations for the 2014 to 2020 period (obtained from publicly available disclosure data) for Korean listed firms. [Findings]We find a significant positive correlation between the foreign investors ownership and firms’ R&D intensity and the level of R&D investments. This indicates that foreign investors effectively mitigate information asymmetry and monitor managers’ opportunistic behaviors to curb long－term investment, ultimately increasing firms’ R&D investments. Moreover, our analysis shows that the positive association between foreign investors and R&D investments is more pronounced in firms with existence and increased ratio of female directors on corporate boards. [Implications]In highlighting the positive impacts of more gender diverse boards on corporate investment policy decision－making working as complementary role with foreign investor ownership, this paper has implications for both practitioners and policymakers.