Rethinking Directors' Effectiveness: The Development and Empirical Analysis of a Novel Model

The purpose of this dissertation is to introduce and empirically test a new theoretical perspective for assessing board effectiveness. Although the ability-motivation models provide a fruitful foundation in developing the characteristics that influence directors' job effectiveness, there are limitations this these models. First, the directors' ability and motivation dimensions are not clear, as existing conceptualizations are fungible and provide little clarity for theoretical and empirical research. Second, the ability-motivation models overlook several characteristics that are known to influence job performance but do not fit within the current dimensions. Finally, the current studies implicitly assume that all directors on the board have the same opportunity to monitor and advise in every domain. Therefore, I integrate the corporate governance literature on board effectiveness and the social psychology literature on job performance and propose that boards' effectiveness is a function of individual directors' capacity, engagement, and opportunity. This dissertation offers several contributions. First, I propose a theoretical model that illuminates and extends the core dimensions (i.e., capacity, engagement, and opportunity) of directors' effectiveness. The core dimensions of the model in my dissertation provide a much-needed conceptual clarity and coherence to the constructs that influence directors' effectiveness, which supports the development of stronger theory of directors' effectiveness. Second, by exploring the role of opportunity, I challenge one major assumption of the corporate governance field that all directors on the board have the same responsibility to monitor and advise in all domains. Third, the dissertation begins to shed light to the 'black box' of boards of directors by exploring how boards might enable directors to exert their full potential regarding their board functions.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Business, Management

Department dc:contributor.department

Management

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Calvano da Silva, Felipe

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Schnatterly, Karen A.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Hunt, Richard A.
• Kumar, Pankaj
• Townsend, David

• Strategic leadership
• corporate governance
• board of directors
• organization misconduct
• mergers and acquisitions

Statement dc:rights

• Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:34100

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/110888