The unknown micro-foundations of corporate boards: Going inside the black box and beyond

Johanne Grosvold, Ruth Sealey, Gavin Nicholson

Research output: Contribution to conferenceOtherpeer-review

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Abstract

The corporate board of directors has been likened to a “black box” (Huse, 2005), drawing a parallel to the black box installed in airplanes, which captures what happens in the airplane’s cockpit. This is arguably a very apt comparison, since after airplane accidents and crashes; investigators seek to recover the black box, in order to understand what caused the accident. Yet, following numerous corporate crashes widely attributed to corporate board failures, we as scholars have, in the main, not opened the proverbial black box of the board. There are a number of reasons for our comparatively limited knowledge of what goes on inside the board. Firstly, the commercially sensitive nature of what corporate boards do means they are reluctant to invite outsiders in (Goldman and Swayze, 2012). Secondly, corporate board directors represent the upper most echelon of corporate elites, and the challenges of accessing them are well documented, including time pressure, making contacts and overcoming power imbalances (Kadushin, 1995), thus accessing corporate boards takes time, ingenuity and diligence. Despite these challenges, there is a germinating body of research, which has begun to lift the lid on the black box of the corporate board, and to unpick the micro-foundations of corporate boards through methods such as observational studies (E.g. Currall, Hammer, Baggett, Doniger, 1999), visual methods research (Bezemer, Nicholson, and Pugliese, 2018), and survey-based studies that assess group dynamics (Brown, Buchholtz, Butts, Ward, 2019). In order to push the boundaries of corporate board research in the business and society field, we propose to explore the research question, what are the micro foundations of corporate board research and how do they shape (business and society) performance? This is a deliberately broad question, to encourage a deep conversation about the unknown of corporate board research. We seek to present studies that draw on a wide range of methods, theories and approaches, and which seem to bring a new perspective to what we already know.
Original languageEnglish
Pages1
Number of pages4
Publication statusAcceptance date - 2020
EventIABS Annual meeting 2020 - MOVED ONLINE FOR COVID: Exploring the unknown - Portugal, Lisbon, Portugal
Duration: 4 Jun 20208 Jun 2020

Conference

ConferenceIABS Annual meeting 2020 - MOVED ONLINE FOR COVID
Abbreviated titleIABS conference
Country/TerritoryPortugal
CityLisbon
Period4/06/208/06/20

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