Inside the black box of the Board: The importance of Board dynamics and national context for the effective functioning of Boards - a comparative analysis between UK and Romanian listed companies.

6 Septembrie 2022 18:30 - 20:00 Peter Jansen will present the webinar "Inside the black box of the Board: The importance of Board dynamics and national context for the effective functioning of Boards - a comparative analysis between UK and Romanian listed companies.". Registration.

Despite regular upgrades in corporate governance codes, corporate governance failures in the form of fraud and financial scandals have continued to grow rapidly since the 1970’s, facilitated by complex group structures and international capital flows and mediated by managerial incentives and ownership concentration. A better understanding of the functioning of boards can increase our knowledge of board behavior and help governments in developing policies to mitigate bad corporate behavior.
Traditionally, most literature about the functioning of boards has been financial-economic and taken an agency theory perspective focused on quantifiable board characteristics such as board size or number of non-executive directors. This input-output approach discards the actual board processes, the dynamics inside the board, despite increasing empirical evidence that board processes are stronger indicators of board functioning than board characteristics. Only in the last two decades research was conducted which tries to shed some light on this “black-box” of actual board behavior by exploring the relationships and behavior between board members mutually and between the board and management.
Even more rare are comparative cross-border studies on the effect of national context on board effectiveness. Recent cross-border research into board effectiveness increasingly shows the moderating effect of different legal-institutional frameworks, ownerships structures and work-related individual values and behaviours (national culture) on board effectiveness. This cross-national context is increasingly important against the background of the continuing internationalization of boards.
In this webinar we will discuss a model for analyzing board effectiveness, focussing on board processes and national context. It will show how specific board processes influence the functioning of boards and how these processes differ between UK and Romanian listed companies. This webinar is useful to board directors and chairman of boards of directors, as it can help them to better understand and manage board behavior, as well as for policymakers who want to better regulate board behavior.