We suggest a collaborative research design for corporate governance research that not only integrates interaction, but also joint theory and concept building, with practice. Our proposed research design builds bridges for reflection between scholars and practitioners, while offering relevant processes and a systematic approach to theory and concept building. We call the design Practicholar, which goes further than case study and action research methodologies and offers a design that promotes interaction and facilitates collaboration. Our proposed research design enables understanding of new and complex phenomena in real-life situations and expands our knowledge of phenomena in their specific context. This innovative research design aims for the development of corporate governance research by collaborative efforts among scholars and practitioners.

In this multidisciplinary and conceptual paper, we use insights from new and challenging developments in the management and marketing literature to inform corporate governance research. We shed light on the role of governance and specifically boards of directors in value creation in small and medium enterprises. While corporate governance research mostly tends to emphasise the role of governance mechanisms such as boards in the protection and distribution of value, our research problematises such a narrow view and (re)conceptualises their role in value co-creation. By exploring the role of boards as resource integrators within a wider service ecosystem, we propose novel ways in which boards can become integral to firms’ value creation processes. In doing so, we develop a new logic for framing the boards’ tasks and suggest new directions for corporate governance research and practice. We apply an empirical conceptualisation strategy in order to make our findings more accessible. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

In this paper we aim to create a framework for the promotion of innovation through effective board chairpersonship in growth oriented firms. Team production theory is applied to provide a conceptual foundation for understanding the value creating potential of boards within the boundaries of the firm and its operations. Thereafter, we employ a case study approach using empirical data based on interviews with a selection of experienced board chairpersons. Our findings result in a tentative framework that identifies core activities of effective board leadership organized and managed by the chairperson of the board. Interestingly, some dimensions in this context are identified as prerequisites for effective boards, but do not directly promote firm-level innovations. Other dimensions were regarded as core activities contributing directly to the creation of innovation. While the prerequisites for effective boards were related to issues such as structure, processes and culture, the prerequisites for innovation promoting boards were primarily activities related to the cognitive aspects of the board’s work.

This paper presents a systematic literature review of 139 articles on board leadership that were published in business and management journals since 1980s. Journal names, author country affiliations, topics and focus levels, theories, empirical contexts, and methodologies are presented and analysed. We also assemble and analyse this data thematically in order to identify and frame developments and trends in researchers’ ideas on board leadership. This analysis provides guidance for researchers by identifying different research streams on board leadership. The analysis may also serve as basis for theory development in board leadership research that can inform policy making and best practice recommendations.

Young knowledge-intensive firms must create markets for their products when transforming new technologies into innovation. The main objective of the paper is to examine the strategies and decision logics involved when university spin-offs use inter-organizational networks to cope with the unscertainties that surround the entrepreneurial process of market creation. The paper is based on a quasi-inductive methodological approach; first an exploratory case study of a spin-off company originating from Lund University and followed by a follow-up survey to a broader sample of incubator start-ups across Sweden.

This chapter provides a review of 127 published articles reporting on board leadership in corporate governance research. The articles are reviewed and presented with respect to the background of authors, the academic journals where studies are published, the main topics that is pursued, the empirical contexts and the methodologies used. Moreover, we identify trends in scholarly thinking on board leadership that has emerged and developed during the past decades. On the basis of these findings, we provide directions for further research on board leadership. Also, we make some reflections about possible research streams that may provide fertile ground for best practice recommendations.

The length and complexity of the supply chain tend to increase, rather than diminish, thereby making the supply chain riskier and less predictable and, hence, more vulnerable. At the same time, customers are becoming increasingly demanding. The challenge to businesses today is to create a resilient supply chain in order to manage and mitigate risk and vulnerability. The purpose of this paper is to describe the use methods and tolls from quality and logistics can improve supply chain resilience. There are five principles that characterise supply chain resilience: risk management culture, agility, design-and innovation-led organisations, collaboration and spreading and anchoring of the vision, goal, values and methods. Using a combined quality management philosophy, the speed of process could be increased, and the responsiveness and flexibility could be improved, which means quicker response to changes. It has also been indicated that a combined quality management philosophy improves the companies’ resilience, due to their increased agility and strengthened ability to handle variability and risk management. Quality management tools can be very effective in the companies’ efforts to control supply chain risk and to identify risk sources of variation, even outside the focal company.