Manuscript Type: Review Research Question/Issue: Over the last four decades, research on the relationship between boards of directors and strategy has proliferated. Yet to date there is little theoretical and empirical agreement regarding the question of how boards of directors contribute to strategy. This review assesses the extant literature by highlighting emerging trends and identifying several avenues for future research. Research Findings/Results: Using a content-analysis of 150 articles published in 23 management journals up to 2007, we describe and analyze how research on boards of directors and strategy has evolved over time. We illustrate how topics, theories, settings, and sources of data interact and influence insights about board-strategy relationships during three specific periods. Theoretical Implications: Our study illustrates that research on boards of directors and strategy evolved from normative and structural approaches to behavioral and cognitive approaches. Our results encourage future studies to examine the impact of institutional and context-specific factors on the (expected) contribution of boards to strategy, and to apply alternative methods to fully capture the impact of board processes and dynamics on strategy making. Practical Implications: The increasing interest in boards of directors' contribution to strategy echoes a movement towards more strategic involvement of boards of directors. However, best governance practices and the emphasis on board independence and control may hinder the board contribution to the strategic decision making. Our study invites investors and policy-makers to consider the requirements for an effective strategic task when they nominate board members and develop new regulations.

This article explores the quality of accounting information in listed family firms. The authors exploit the features of the Italian equity market characterized by high ownership concentration across all types of firms to disentangle the effects of family ownership from other major block holders on the quality of accounting information. The findings document that family firms convey financial information of higher quality compared to their nonfamily peers. Furthermore, the authors provide evidence that the determinants of accounting quality differ across family and nonfamily firms.

No abstract

No abstract

Manuscript type Empirical Research question/issue This study seeks to better understand how board chairs, as leaders and equals, shape the context for other directors to engage in their governance roles. Research findings/insights Using a combination of video‐taped board meetings and semi‐structured interviews with directors at three corporations, we found a generalized and negative association between chair involvement and directors' engagement during board meetings. Theoretical/academic implications Our empirical results suggest that the chair's role can be viewed as a paradox, requiring both (i) strong leadership to counter managerial power, and (ii) a more subtle orientation as peer to fellow directors that enables other board members to contribute to boardroom decision‐making. Moreover, our study revealed the transitory nature of both chair contributions and directors' engagement during meetings, highlighting the potential and need for further unpacking of the temporal dimensions of boardroom decision‐making processes. Practitioner/policy implications Our analysis suggests a revision of the implicit prescription in the literature for board chairs to be active leaders who lead from the front. Given that chair involvement appears to reduce director engagement during meetings, our research hints at the need for a more supportive role of the chair during boardroom decision‐making that is in line with non‐traditional leadership models https://youtu.be/urcJHJHRXwc.