Alan E. Ellstrand

META-ANALYTIC REVIEWS OF BOARD COMPOSITION, LEADERSHIP STRUCTURE, AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE

Careful review of extant research addressing the relationships between board composition, board leadership structure, and firm financial performance demonstrates little consistency in results. In general, neither board composition nor board leadership structure has been consistently linked to firm financial performance. In response to these findings, we provide metaanalyses of 54 empirical studies of board composition (159 samples, n = 40,160) and 31 empirical studies of board leadership structure (69 samples, n= 12,915) and their relationships to firm financial performance. These—and moderator analyses relying on firm size, the nature of the financial performance indicator, and various operationalizations of board composition— provide little evidence of systematic governance structure/financial performance relationships.

Number of Directors and Financial Performance: A Meta-Analysis

Although a host of theory-driven rationales suggest a relationship between board of directors size and firm performance, the literature provides no consensus about the direction of that relationship. A meta-analysis of 131 samples (N = 20,620) provided systematic evidence of nonzero, positive, true population estimates of board size-performance relationships.

Composition of the Top Management Team and Firm International Diversification

This study investigates the impact of various top management team characteristics on firm international diversification. Relying on data from 126 firms in the electronics industry, we find that certain top management team characteristics are related to international expansion. Specifically, results indicate that lower average age, higher average tenure, higher average elite education, higher average international experience, and higher tenure heterogeneity are associated with firm international diversification. The study reinforces the importance of top management team composition in internationalization decisions and suggests further research in this context.

Compensation Committee Composition as a Determinant of Ceo Compensation

Extant research examining the relationship between a firms board and its CEOs compensation has focused primarily on the composition of the board-at-large. However, it may be the nature of the com...

More Than Adopters: Competing Influences in the Interlocking Directorate

This study explores the competing influences of different types of board interlocks on diffusion of a strategic initiative among a population of firms. We examine a broad social network of interlocking directors in U.S. firms over a period of 17 years and consider the likelihood that these firms will adopt a strategy of expansion into China. Results show that ties to adopters that unsuccessfully implement this strategy have a nearly equal and opposing effect on the likelihood of adoption as do ties to those that successfully implement the strategy. Ties to those that do not implement the strategy also have a suppressive effect on the likelihood of adoption. Furthermore, we examine a firms position in the core-periphery structure of the interlocking directorate, finding that ties to adopters closer to the network core positively affect the likelihood of adoption. We discuss the implications of our study for social network analysis, governance, and internationalization research.

CEO Successor Choice, its Antecedents and Influence on Subsequent Firm Performance An Empiricalanalysis

Prior CEO succession research has been inconclusive, and studies suffer from threats to external validity from sampling limitations. This study uses 219 succession events over a 2-year period to investigate the antecedents and consequences of CEO successor type. Our findings suggest that institutional ownership interacts with firm performance to influence successor choice. Firm performance subsequent to the succession is not influenced by the successors origin.

The involvement of board of directors and institutional investors in investing in transition economies: An agency theory approach

We investigate the influence of the composition of the board of directors and stock ownership patterns on the decision to enter markets in Central and Eastern Europe. Our findings suggest that board composition alone does not influence the entry decision while firms with less concentrated stock ownership were more likely to enter these developing markets. We also found that while better performing firms were attracted to opportunities in Central and Eastern Europe, firms with poor prior performance and outside dominated boards were also more likely to enter these markets.

On Academic Rankings, Unacceptable Methods, and the Social Obligations of Business Schools

Inspired by recent discussions of the systematic costs that external rankings impose on academic institutions, and the undeniable shifts in the landscape of institutional data, a concerted and pragmatic re-evaluation of ranking efforts has begun. In this study, multiple administrators and researchers representing both public and private institutions across the United States weigh in on these issues. While reaffirming the social contract we hold with society, we argue that the fundamental methodological shortcomings of existing rankings, and ultimately any ordinal ranking system, limit the value of current rankings. These shortcomings emerge from the conceptualization and the architecture of comparisons, and are evident in survey designs, data collection methods, and data aggregation procedures. Our discussion continues by outlining the minimal requirements that a socially responsible, transparent, flexible, and highly representative rating (vs. ranking) approach should employ. Ultimately, we call on academic institutions and organizing bodies to take a collective stand against existing rankings and to embrace the strategic use of multidimensional alternatives that faithfully serve prospective students, parents, and other key stakeholders. We conclude with a number of suggestions and opportunities for practice-oriented research in the decision sciences aimed to support this fundamental shift in evaluative framing.