Levrau, A. () Van den Berghe, L.A.A. () (Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School)
Abstract
Mainstream research on boards of directors has been focusing on a direct relationship between board characteristics and firm performance, but up till now the results are inconclusive. Different reasons are put forward to explain this inconsistency, but it can be argued that ‘traditional’ board research has been neglecting potential intervening variables. In this paper we present a process-oriented model for board effectiveness by relying on the corporate governance literature and the literature on group effectiveness. We follow the input-process-output approach to extract the significant variables from literature and integrate them into a research framework for studying board effectiveness. In particular, we identify three intervening variables (cohesiveness, debate and conflict norms) which we believe mediate the effects of board characteristics on board performance. The rationale for including these ‘process’ variables is the belief that the interactions and relationships among board members determine to a large extent the collective outcomes of the board of directors. In this respect, the model goes beyond the traditional structural attributes of boards of directors to include behavioural or attitudinal measures of board effectiveness. It also highlights the need for a multi-disciplinary approach in empirical research on boards of directors.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
file. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.