Impact of the country context on board director role: the case of directors of international joint ventures based in Serbia

One of the key issues identified from the examination of the debate on board functioning and effectiveness is failure of much of the corporate governance (CG) literature to account for the contextual influences and/or an implicit assumption that board directors operate within the Anglo-Saxon CG system. Based on a qualitative exploratory case study of 13 board directors from three Serbian-foreign joint ventures based in Serbia, this paper illustrates the directors' experiences of the impact of the country context on their role. The findings show that the Serbian legal system and political economy represent significant contextual features in determining board director behaviour. The directors' common perception is that the way they operate in the Serbian environment cannot be compared to that of the 'Western CG models' and that it is difficult to transfer the developed countries' CG experiences to Serbia. Contributions to theory and practice are outlined.