Project R-1947

The influence of director┌s multiple identities on board processes and task effectiveness in family firms. (Research)

Research on boards has been predominated by concepts and models that link a wide range of board compositional variables with firm performance and as such, treat the inner workings of the board as a black box. However, empirical evidence does not show any strong significant relationship between board demographics and firm performance. Therefore, this project investigate this black box and concentrate on processes and behaviors involved in the creation of effective board performance in the context of family firms. More specific, we investigate how multiple business and family related identities, the strength of identification and the interaction between multiple director identities affect board task performance in family firms. Family firms offer a specific context because of the coexistence of the family system and the business system which generates business as well as family related identities with which directors can identify themselves. The first part of the project is the development of a conceptual model which will be empirically tested in the second part of the project with moderating and mediating econometric models. This project is among the first to empirically investigate the relationship between director identification and board task performance.

01 October 2009 - 30 September 2011