By using the panel data of China’s listed companies from 1999 to 2013 in the CSMAR database, this paper empirically finds that top management team (hereinafter referred to as TMT) size has a significant impact on corporate performance and presents an inverted U-shaped relationship, with the optimal TMT size being about 14 to 15. But the influence of TMT size is no longer significant after controlling board size, that is to say, board size is the core problem of executive governance. The paper also proves that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between board size and corporate performance, with the optimal board size about 9. At the same time, the paper also verified the influence of other characteristics of TMT on corporate performance, such as the gender ratio of senior executives, the board shareholding ratio and the independent director percentage. | An empirical research on top management team size, board size and corporate performance evidence from China’s listed companies
