世界許多企業都開始注重公司治理並決定設置外部董事，台灣在2002年2月亦開始要求新上市櫃公司設立外部董事。本研究將針對在2002年2月前就已自願設置外部董事之公司加以研究，探討外部董事之特性對公司績效及未來價值的創造是否有所影響。除此之外亦另針對電子業及非電子業的外部董事進行研究。
本研究以多元迴歸來檢測在2002年2月以前上市之公司，在自願性設置外部董事的情況下，其董事會之席次、外部董事之品質(學歷、經歷)對Tobin’s Q、ROA及ROE之影響。所得之實證結果如下：
1.外部董事在董事會之席次比例與公司績效呈正向關係。
2.外部董事之品質—學歷，與公司績效間可能呈正向關係。
3.外部董事之品質—經歷，與Tobin’s Q呈顯著正相關，與公司績效ROA、ROE之間為負向關係。
4.電子業較非電子業在外部董事的品質上來得高。而外部董事席次比例的部份則沒有顯著差異。

This paper examines the listed firms which invite outside directors voluntarily in Taiwan before Feb, 2002. The purpose of this paper is try to find if there is some kind of relationship between the outside director’s characters and firm financial performance. And also we study the differences in outside director’s characters between electronic industry and non-electronic industry. The finding suggests:
1. The percentage of board seats held by outside directors has positive relation with firm performance.
2. The outside director’s education probably has positive relation with firm performance.
3. The outside director’s experience has significant positive relation with Tobin’s Q, and it has negative relation with ROE and ROA.
4. The outside director’s education and experience of electronic industry are higher than that of non-electronic industry. The percentage of board seats held by outside directors doesn’t have significant difference between electronic industry and non-electronic industry.

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