Does Board Structure Matter for Innovation?

Meriam Attia (1, 2) , Ouidad Yousfi (2, 3) , Abdelwahed Omri (1)

1 ISG - Institut Supérieur de Gestion de Tunis [Tunis]
2 UM - Université de Montpellier
3 MRM - Montpellier Research in Management

This chapter shows how boards’ characteristics could influence two aspects of innovation: (1) innovation effort (such as R&D expenditures and R&D team composition) and (2) innovation performance, specifically product, process, organizational and marketing innovations. First, we focus on individual characteristics of board members and their influence on innovation effort and performance. Then, we examine how the internal organization of boards, specifically the committees’ roles and their composition and to what extent they could be meaningful to innovation processes. Specially, we discuss the influence of the committee size, the frequency of meetings, and the presence of independent and female members. Finally, the chapter sheds light on the effectiveness of initiatives and programs introduced to increase diversity such as gender quota laws, and the presence of minorities in top management positions.

Mots clés: Innovation; Corporate Governance; Board Structure; Board demographic attributes; Committees

Domaines: Finance [q-fin.GN]; Gestion et management; Economies et finances; Etudes sur le genre

Meriam Attia, Ouidad Yousfi, Abdelwahed Omri. Does Board Structure Matter for Innovation?. World Scientific Publishing Company. Financial and Economic Systems: Transformations & New Challenges, 2021. ⟨hal-03144970⟩