IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jomstd/v54y2017i7p1079-1110.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Who's the Boss at the Top? A Micro‐Level Analysis of Director Expertise, Status and Conformity Within Boards

Author

Listed:
  • Dennis B. Veltrop
  • Eric Molleman
  • Reggy B. H. Hooghiemstra
  • Hans van Ees

Abstract

In this paper we address how director expertise impacts a director's social status and conformity within the board. Our results, derived from two unique multi‐source datasets of peer ratings on director status and conformity of non‐executive directors from Dutch organizations, indicate that industry‐specific expertise and financial expertise differently impact directors’ social status and influence within the board. We find that directors’ individual performance orientation – the motivation to demonstrate expertise – acts as an important contingency for expertise to increase directors’ status within the board. Additional analyses using archival data and interviews with non‐executive directors substantiate our findings and provide additional insight into the dynamics operating within boards. This study extends existing research on boards of directors and provides unique micro‐level insights into the boardroom dynamics that connect director expertise to director status and conformity within boards.

Suggested Citation

  • Dennis B. Veltrop & Eric Molleman & Reggy B. H. Hooghiemstra & Hans van Ees, 2017. "Who's the Boss at the Top? A Micro‐Level Analysis of Director Expertise, Status and Conformity Within Boards," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(7), pages 1079-1110, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:54:y:2017:i:7:p:1079-1110
    DOI: 10.1111/joms.12276
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12276
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/joms.12276?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Littlepage, Glenn & Robison, William & Reddington, Kelly, 1997. "Effects of Task Experience and Group Experience on Group Performance, Member Ability, and Recognition of Expertise," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 133-147, February.
    2. Renee B. Adams & Benjamin E. Hermalin & Michael S. Weisbach, 2010. "The Role of Boards of Directors in Corporate Governance: A Conceptual Framework and Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(1), pages 58-107, March.
    3. Michael C. Jensen, 2010. "The Modern Industrial Revolution, Exit, and the Failure of Internal Control Systems," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 22(1), pages 43-58, January.
    4. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    5. Richard Leblanc & Mark S. Schwartz, 2007. "The Black Box of Board Process: gaining access to a difficult subject," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(5), pages 843-851, September.
    6. Yasemin Y. Kor, 2003. "Experience-Based Top Management Team Competence and Sustained Growth," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(6), pages 707-719, December.
    7. Katalin Takacs Haynes & Amy Hillman, 2010. "The effect of board capital and CEO power on strategic change," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(11), pages 1145-1163, November.
    8. Zagenczyk, Thomas J. & Scott, Kristin D. & Gibney, Ray & Murrell, Audrey J. & Thatcher, Jason Bennett, 2010. "Social influence and perceived organizational support: A social networks analysis," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 111(2), pages 127-138, March.
    9. Amy J. Hillman & Gavin Nicholson & Christine Shropshire, 2008. "Directors' Multiple Identities, Identification, and Board Monitoring and Resource Provision," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(3), pages 441-456, June.
    10. Michael C. Withers & Kevin G. Corley & Amy J. Hillman, 2012. "Stay or Leave: Director Identities and Voluntary Exit from the Board During Organizational Crisis," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(3), pages 835-850, June.
    11. Stiles, Philip & Taylor, Bernard, 2001. "Boards at Work: How Directors View their Roles and Responsibilities," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198288763.
    12. Badolato, Patrick G. & Donelson, Dain C. & Ege, Matthew, 2014. "Audit committee financial expertise and earnings management: The role of status," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 208-230.
    13. Barbara S. Lawrence, 1997. "Perspective---The Black Box of Organizational Demography," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 8(1), pages 1-22, February.
    14. Rick L. Williams, 2000. "A Note on Robust Variance Estimation for Cluster-Correlated Data," Biometrics, The International Biometric Society, vol. 56(2), pages 645-646, June.
    15. Herbert C. Kelman, 1958. "Compliance, identification, and internalization three processes of attitude change," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 2(1), pages 51-60, March.
    16. Donald C. Hambrick & Axel v. Werder & Edward J. Zajac, 2008. "New Directions in Corporate Governance Research," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(3), pages 381-385, June.
    17. Agrawal, Anup & Chadha, Sahiba, 2005. "Corporate Governance and Accounting Scandals," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 48(2), pages 371-406, October.
    18. Boris Groysberg & Jeffrey T. Polzer & Hillary Anger Elfenbein, 2011. "Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth: How High-Status Individuals Decrease Group Effectiveness," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(3), pages 722-737, June.
    19. Mark L. Defond & Rebecca N. Hann & Xuesong Hu, 2005. "Does the Market Value Financial Expertise on Audit Committees of Boards of Directors?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(2), pages 153-193, May.
    20. Elizabeth Eve Umphress & Giuseppe (Joe) Labianca & Daniel J. Brass & Edward (Eli) Kass & Lotte Scholten, 2003. "The Role of Instrumental and Expressive Social Ties in Employees' Perceptions of Organizational Justice," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(6), pages 738-753, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Datta, Deepak K. & Basuil, Dynah A. & Agarwal, Ankita, 2020. "Effects of board characteristics on post-acquisition performance: A study of cross-border acquisitions by firms in the manufacturing sector," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(3).
    2. Haroon ur Rashid Khan & Waqas Bin Khidmat & Muhammad Danish Habib & Sadia Awan, 2022. "Academic directors in board and corporate expropriation: Evidence from China," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(2), pages 372-397, March.
    3. Hansin Bilgili & Jonathan L. Johnson & Tsvetomira V. Bilgili & Alan E. Ellstrand, 2022. "Research on social relationships and processes governing the behaviors of members of the corporate elite: a review and bibliometric analysis," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 16(8), pages 2285-2339, November.
    4. Wang, Joyce C. & Zhao, Yiyi & Sun, Sunny L. & Zhu, Jigao, 2023. "Female-friendly boards in family firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    5. Oehmichen, Jana & Firk, Sebastian & Wolff, Michael & Haas, Veronika, 2022. "Board experience and value creation in cross-border acquisitions: The role of acquirer and target country institutions," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(4).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Carlos Jiménez-Angueira & Nathan Stuart, 2015. "Relative performance evaluation, pay-for-luck, and double-dipping in CEO compensation," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 701-732, May.
    2. Abernathy, John L. & Beyer, Brooke & Masli, Adi & Stefaniak, Chad, 2014. "The association between characteristics of audit committee accounting experts, audit committee chairs, and financial reporting timeliness," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 283-297.
    3. Sugato Chakravarty & Chiraphol N. Chiyachantana & Christine Jiang, 2011. "THE CHOICE OF TRADING VENUE AND RELATIVE PRICE IMPACT OF INSTITUTIONAL TRADING: ADRs VERSUS THE UNDERLYING SECURITIES IN THEIR LOCAL MARKETS," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 34(4), pages 537-567, December.
    4. Masulis, Ronald W. & Wang, Cong & Xie, Fei, 2012. "Globalizing the boardroom—The effects of foreign directors on corporate governance and firm performance," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 527-554.
    5. Adams, Mike & Jiang, Wei, 2016. "Do outside directors influence the financial performance of risk-trading firms? Evidence from the United Kingdom (UK) insurance industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 36-51.
    6. Al-Hadi, Ahmed & Al-Yahyaee, Khamis Hamed & Hussain, Syed Mujahid & Taylor, Grantley, 2019. "Market risk disclosures and corporate governance structure: Evidence from GCC financial firms," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 136-150.
    7. repec:csr:wpaper:1014 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Lerong He & Rong Yang & Yuanlong He, 2018. "Does social exchange relationship impair audit committee effectiveness?," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 22(2), pages 219-249, June.
    9. Yanmin Gao & Jeong-Bon Kim & Desmond Tsang & Haibin Wu, 2017. "Go before the whistle blows: an empirical analysis of director turnover and financial fraud," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 320-360, March.
    10. Hooghiemstra, Reggy & Hermes, Niels & Oxelheim, Lars & Randøy, Trond, 2019. "Strangers on the board: The impact of board internationalization on earnings management of Nordic firms," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 119-134.
    11. Armstrong, Christopher S. & Guay, Wayne R. & Weber, Joseph P., 2010. "The role of information and financial reporting in corporate governance and debt contracting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 179-234, December.
    12. Huang, Haijie & Lee, Edward & Lyu, Changjiang & Zhu, Zhenmei, 2016. "The effect of accounting academics in the boardroom on the value relevance of financial reporting information," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 18-30.
    13. J. Yo-Jud Cheng & Boris Groysberg & Paul Healy & Rajesh Vijayaraghavan, 2021. "Directors’ Perceptions of Board Effectiveness and Internal Operations," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(10), pages 6399-6420, October.
    14. Laura Padilla-Angulo, 2020. "The impact of board diversity on strategic change: a stakeholder perspective," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 24(4), pages 927-952, December.
    15. Steven Boivie & Michael C. Withers & Scott D. Graffin & Kevin G. Corley, 2021. "Corporate directors' implicit theories of the roles and duties of boards," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(9), pages 1662-1695, September.
    16. Abernathy, John L. & Herrmann, Don & Kang, Tony & Krishnan, Gopal V., 2013. "Audit committee financial expertise and properties of analyst earnings forecasts," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 1-11.
    17. Toru Yoshikawa & Helen Wei Hu, 2017. "Organizational Citizenship Behaviors of Directors: An Integrated Framework of Director Role-Identity and Boardroom Structure," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 143(1), pages 99-109, June.
    18. Mobbs, Shawn, 2018. "Firm CFO board membership and departures," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 316-331.
    19. Ahsan Habib & Md. Borhan Uddin Bhuiyan, 2016. "Problem directors on the audit committee and financial reporting quality," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(2), pages 121-144, February.
    20. Ben Slimane, Faten & Padilla Angulo, Laura, 2019. "Strategic change and corporate governance: Evidence from the stock exchange industry," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 206-218.
    21. Hongjin Zhu & Toru Yoshikawa, 2016. "Contingent value of director identification: The role of government directors in monitoring and resource provision in an emerging economy," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(8), pages 1787-1807, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:54:y:2017:i:7:p:1079-1110. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0022-2380 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.