| Chapter 1 presents the framework of reference for this dissertation and elaborates on the central concepts of this dissertation; small and medium-sized business, family business, and governance. Chapter 2 reviews the literature on boards of directors. Specific board attributes that are addressed are (1) board composition (i.e. size, outsiderness and independence, demography), (2) board roles and functions, and (3) board functioning (i.e. processes and group dynamics). Chapter 3 is the first empirical chapter. The research question of this chapter is: 'What is/are the role(s) that boards of directors in private small and medium/sized family businesses perform and what role(s) is/are important? Results from the factor analysis show that two board roles can be distinguished: control and service. Furthermore, additional analysis indicates that the CEO perceives the service role as most important. When it comes to possible improvements of board role performance, the figures show that in general, the boards of directors in small and medium-sized family businesses should improve their performance on both roles to meet CEO expectations.; Chapter 4 builds on the previous chapter and examines the determinants of the performance of the board of directors on the control and the service role. The most eminent findings from the seemingly unrelated regression estimation are as follows. First of all, the results show that the activity of the CEO in boards of other firms has a positive effect on the control and service role performance of the board of directors in his/her own firm. Secondly, it appears to be that a higher educated CEO has a negative effect on the board of directors' service role performance. Furthermore, it can be derived from the results that boards of directors in larger firms have a higher performance on the control role. When looking at the remaining variables, the goals of the firm show the most obvious influence on the board's performance. In firms for which preserving the family character of the firm is important, the board of directors performs better on the control role. In case the growth role is important, the board of directors shows a higher performance on both the control and service role.; Chapter 5, the third and last empirical chapter, examines how the management (CEO), the board of directors and interactions between them relate to the level of importance that is placed on family-oriented goals. The results show that the CEO's empathy level has a positive influence on the importance that is placed on family-oriented goals. Furthermore, an external board attenuates this relationship. In addition, included as a control variable, the positive effect of generation on the importance placed on family-oriented goals is shown to be significant. An overall synopsis of the dissertation is presented in Chapter 6. |
