Evaluating the effectiveness of corporate boards
ISSN: 1472-0701
Article publication date: 15 November 2018
Issue publication date: 3 April 2019
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine how board evaluations have emerged as an important tool in public policy and corporate practice for enhancing board effectiveness.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors review the extensive literature on effectiveness and the emerging literature on board evaluation to identify ways to assess the current policy direction for external evaluation of corporate boards.
Findings
The paper develops an integrated framework of effectiveness that can be used as a tool for board evaluation, in particular for externally facilitated exercises.
Research limitations/implications
Through its integration of prior conceptual work this paper advances our theoretical understanding of this emerging part of policy and practice, with to-date lack much empirical basis.
Practical implications
The framework that is developed shows ways to focus how the practice is conducted by boards and external evaluators alike.
Social implications
It can also help policy formation by pointing out the limitations as well as benefits of various policy options.
Originality/value
In pointing to ways to develop study of the field through empirical research, it provides direction for future academic research. It also identifies a need for and direction toward the professionalization of practice.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
An earlier version of this paper was presented to the British Academy of Management conference at the University of Warwick in 2017. The authors thank participants for their comments, which have led to refinements to the argument and the model.
Citation
Nordberg, D. and Booth, R. (2019), "Evaluating the effectiveness of corporate boards", Corporate Governance, Vol. 19 No. 2, pp. 372-387. https://doi.org/10.1108/CG-08-2018-0275
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited