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To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2008.00591.x Byline: Alessandro Minichilli ([dagger]), Alessandro Zattoni (*), Fabio Zona (*) Abstract: Despite the increasing attention of management scholars to boards of directors, there is still scant evidence on the antecedents of board task performance. The lack of significant results seems to be due to some theoretical and methodological choices followed by scholars, i.e. the almost exclusive reliance on agency theory and the use of demographic data. Following the call for dismantling the fortresses dominating past studies, this paper contributes to opening the 'black box' of boards of directors, developing a conceptual model that considers the impact of board members' diversity, commitment and critical debate on board task effectiveness in performing its service and control tasks. We collected primary data through a questionnaire survey, and we tested the model controlling for board, firm and industry characteristics. Our findings suggest that (i) the predictors we identified, and particularly the board members' commitment, are far more important than board demographics to predict board task performance; (ii) firm and industry contexts exert a significant influence on board task performance; (iii) predictors have a different impact on specific sets of tasks. Thus, our findings support the idea that several board characteristics and contingencies at both industry and firm level must be acknowledged in board design. Author Affiliation: ([dagger])Department of Management, Bocconi University, Viale Isonzo 23, 20135 Milano, Italy (*)Management Department, Parthenope University, and SDA Bocconi School of Management, Strategic and Entrepreneurial Management Department, Via Bocconi 8, 20136 Milano, Italy Article note: Corresponding author email: alessandro.minichilli@unibocconi.it

This study examines the effects of international expansion on domestic growth in family firms (FFs) versus non-FFs. Integrating international business research into socioemotional wealth (SEW) theory, we argue that FFs seek to compensate for SEW losses (as implied by foreign direct investments) with SEW gains (associated with domestic growth). We claim that FFs are less prone to substitute home businesses with foreign activities and more likely to move back resources to foster domestic growth. Geographical diversification and modes of entry foster FFs' domestic growth to an even greater extent. A test conducted on Italian firms supports these hypothesized effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Behavioral Agency Model (BAM) offers a behavioral account of executive incentives, according to which the perceived threats to CEO wealth, that is, CEO risk bearing, influence a CEO's propensity to undertake innovation investments. While examining stock options extensively, the extant BAM research devotes relatively scant attention to other forms of incentives, such as stock ownership, that are conducive to one source of risk bearing, that is, employment risk. Furthermore, with an emphasis placed on the CEO, much BAM research neglects the interactive risk preferences of the CEO and the board. This study refines the BAM and empirically explores the countervailing forces exerted by the CEO and board ownership. It elucidates that while CEO ownership exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship with innovation investment, board ownership weakens that relationship. An exploratory test on a sample of 108 Italian manufacturing firms provides support for the hypothesized effects. The refined BAM sheds further light on executive incentives through a behavioral lens, by elucidating the role of stock ownership and the interactive risk preferences of the CEO and the board. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study develops a combined agency–resource dependence perspective and applies it to the study of interlocking directorates. It suggests that interlocking directorates may exert either a positive or a negative effect on subsequent firm performance, depending on the firm’s relative resources, power imbalance, ownership concentration, and CEO ownership. A test on a sample of 145 Italian companies provides support for hypothesized effects. This study suggests that integrating agency and resource dependence theories provides a higher-order explanation of firm performance and helps advance both agency and resource dependence theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study asserts that the effects of board characteristics on firm innovation need to be evaluated with reference to contingency variables. A literature review suggests that relatively few studies adopt a contingency view when examining the outcomes of boards of directors. This study examines the influence on firm innovation of characteristics such as board size, outsider ratio and board diversity, and suggests that their influence is contingent upon firm size. The model is tested on a sample of Italian companies and finds support for the contingency hypothesis. This study advances research on boards of directors by emphasizing the importance of context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines innovation investment during the major economic downturn of 2008-2009. Drawing from prospect theory, it suggests that increasing levels of slack resources enhance innovation investment during a crisis; slack resources also moderate the impact of historical performance on investment. This study also examines how, during global crises, the board of directors can affect the CEO's proclivity to invest by leveraging performance management devices, such as target-setting and behavioural evaluation criteria. A test based on a sample of Italian companies provides support for the hypothesized effects. Results suggest that firms may respond to global crisis with innovation investment, and that organizational factors, as well as the board of directors, may play a major role in this response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyse boards of directors as workgroups, i.e. groups of people that perform one or more tasks within an organisational context. Building on previous studies, we developed a model that relates group's social-psychological processes to three different board tasks: service, monitoring and networking. We tested our model through a survey on 301 large manufacturing firms in Italy. Our findings support the idea that (a) process variables and, to a limited extent, demographic variables significantly influence board task performance; (b) board processes have a different impact on each specific board task; (c) board task performance varies depending upon firm and industry characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]