Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review and systematize previous studies on boards of directors in Brazil and propose an agenda to guide future studies. Originality/value: A conceptual model is developed to provide an integrated view for research on the board of directors, incorporating variables from different levels that connect governance mechanisms, best practices, board dynamics and company performance; we identified gaps for the research agenda. Design/methodology/approach: This review analyzed 95 articles on boards of directors in Brazil between 2000 and 2019. The review was conducted in three major steps: 1. planning; 2. conducting; and 3. organizing the data and reporting the findings. Findings: There is a growing interest in studying boards of directors in Brazil, with a wide range of topics. The most studied are board composition, best practices, diversity and gender. Despite the diversity, the previous studies are homogeneous in theoretical and methodological terms. Based on the agency theory, most articles sought to relate board demography to financial performance, and the findings are not convergent. This scenario opens up some research avenues to address topics that have not yet been explored, such as board processes, board tasks, and differentiation between board performance and company performance.