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Community Representation Among Nonprofit Leadership: Why Should The Board Reflect Those Whom It Serves?, William N. Derwin

Master's Projects and Capstones

Nonprofits, as vehicles for the delivery of essential community services, are integral to the health and prosperity of their communities. But many nonprofit leaders do not represent or adequately understand the community members whom their organizations serve. This study, through a literature review and a qualitative analysis of several expert interviews, evaluates the significance of community representation among nonprofit leadership, the best practices for improving community representation, and the relationship between a nonprofit’s community ties and the outcomes of its grant applications. As the results of the study indicate, it is essential for nonprofit leaders to understand their communities; any …

Effects Of Board Design And Managerial Ownership On The Level Of Cash Holdings In Latin American Firms, Pengyu Qian

Culminating Projects in Economics

This paper analyzes the level of cash holdings and the role of corporate governance in monitoring the potential agency problem. This research studies the relationship between cash holdings, the Board of directors' design, and managerial ownership levels in Latin America's public traded companies in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. I find a positive and statistically significant effect of board size and institutional ownership on cash holdings. I also find a negative and significant correlation between board duality and cash holdings. The results show that board independence is positively and statistically significantly associated with cash holdings when controlling for …

The Financial Impact Of Gender Diversity On Corporate Boards, Elizabeth Hamilton

Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between gender diversity and firm financial performance, using a data set of 50 S&P 500 companies during 2015-2019. Gender diversity was measured through the percentage of women on the board and whether the board has a “critical mass” (of at least three women). In the results of the regression analyses, some significant relationships between variables were found. The regression between ROA and the percentage of women indicated a positive, significant relationship for ROA to the percentage of women. For the regression between ROA and the critical mass variable, no significant …

Social And Human Capital Contributions Of Diverse Board Members, Sharifa Ife Batts

Theses and Dissertations

While most firms serve a diverse population, many have no minorities or women serving as Members on their board. Boards are disadvantaged when their composition fails to align with Their employee population or the stakeholder groups they serve; they are neglecting the Contributions of women and minorities as their voices are unheard. The purpose of this multiple Case comparison study builds on current boardroom diversity and board effectiveness research by Exploring how the unique human and social capital contributions of women and minority board Members increase the boards’ capabilities and impact board governance. I qualitatively examined Six boards of varied …

Board Of Director Composition: An Examination Of How Director Age And Board Innovation Committees Impact Corporate Social And Financial Performance, Sami Ghaddar

2021

This dissertation explores how director age affects a firm’s social domain, and how board-level oversight of firms’ innovation activities affects financial performance. Specifically, the dissertation points to board configurations that can potentially improve social and financial performance. The first chapter reviews the literature by examining two research streams linking board composition to corporate social performance (CSP) and innovation. The chapter presents the theoretical and empirical underpinnings of these two streams. It details the descriptive and thematic findings and offers an understanding of the different contexts in which board composition relates to both CSP and innovation. This chapter also discusses inconsistencies …

Increasing Gender Diversity On Corporate Boards: Voices Of Male And Female Directors In The United States, Vasilia Vasiliou

2020

An emerging literature highlights the lack of gender diversity on corporate boards, its implications, and the need for more scholarship and theoretical development on board diversity. According to this literature, to better understand the reasons behind the persistent underrepresentation of women on boards (WOB), of particular importance is the need to access boards directly for data, as opposed to focusing solely on human capital, firm, and board characteristics. This dissertation research directly accesses both male and female board directors using a qualitative interview approach and employs grounded theory techniques to investigate (a) how and why corporate boards appoint members, and …

Hearts And Minds: An Analysis Of Checks And Safeguards, Monitoring, And Performance Review Of Executive Boards And Their Executive Directors Within Select Nonprofit Corporations., John Michael Wagner

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Horror stories of ineffective nonprofit organization management arise in the media far too often. When these stories emerge, the public demands accountability from those responsible. Ultimately, accountability rests with the fiduciaries of the organization. For nonprofit

organizations in the United States, fiduciary responsibility and accountability reside with the board of directors.

Board governance has been widely studied in the for-profit sector. Due to the critical nature of the work nonprofits perform, there has been an increasing effort to study board governance in nonprofit organizations. Employing in depth interviews, with both executive

directors and board members, checks and safeguards such as …

Women On The Board Of Directors And Their Impact On The Financial Performance Of A Firm: An Empirical Investigation Of Female Directors In The United States Technology Sector, Obinna Mogbogu

Theses and Dissertations

This study uses a sample of S&P 500 firms in the United States technology sector to investigate the likely relationship between female directors and financial performance of firms measured by return on average assets and return on average equity as the two accounting based measures of performance. Reasonable theoretical arguments drawn from resource dependency, human capital, agency, and social psychology theory, suggests that the gender diversity of the board of directors may have either a positive, negative, or neutral effect on the financial performance of the firm. Using nonparametric statistics approach, we find a small negative relationship between female directors …

Two Essays On The Internationalization Speed Of New Ventures, Orhun Guldiken

Management Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation comprises two essays on the internationalization speed of new ventures and contributes to the international entrepreneurship literature at several levels. The first essay reviews and critiques the internationalization speed literature and proposes a multi-dimensional conceptualization of speed of internationalization. In particular, previous studies that examined internationalization speed implicitly assumed that INVs need to enter new countries to grow fast in foreign markets. The key tenet of the first essay is that INVs can also grow fast in foreign markets by expanding rapidly in previously entered host countries. Consequently, the first essay uses three theoretical perspectives — organizational learning, …

Three Essays On Compensation And The Board Of Directors, Ian Cherry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In my first essay, I find a statistically and economically significant director-specific component in CEO pay following the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). In the cross-section of firms, directors that award relatively higher (lower) CEO pay in one firm also award relatively higher (lower) CEO pay in other firms of whose boards they are members during the year. Based on my estimates, the director-specific component is responsible for around ±3.5% of total CEO pay or around ±$230,000 per CEO-year on average. In addition to affecting CEO pay levels, the director-specific component also has a significant effect on …

Non-Executive Directors: Environmental Scanning In An Enacted World, Chung Monica Leon

Theses and Dissertations

Non-executive directors (NEDs) are external members of an organization’s board of directors. These directors’ most significant contribution arguably is found in the quality of their strategic insights, as they ostensibly bring a fresh perspective and set of experiences to acts of strategy and sense making. This study examined NEDs’ contribution to the environmental scanning phase of an organization’s strategic planning process. Data were gathered from a convenience sample of seven current NEDs. Findings indicated that the framing process used during the environmental scanning phase directly influenced how NEDs make sense of the environment. Additionally, NEDs were found to prefer an …

The Roles Boards Play In Ceo Succession Planning, Yi Li Rivolta

Doctoral Dissertations

A lack of CEO succession planning increases business risk as disruption is more likely during a CEO transition. One difficulty of examining the importance of CEO succession planning is that the planning process is difficult to observe and evaluate. The main purposes of this dissertation are two-fold. First is to investigate whether CEO succession planning matters by comparing disruption costs in firms with planned departure and those with unexpected CEO departures due to death and illness. The second purpose is to investigate whether inside or outside directors improve organizational resiliency using the context of sudden CEO departures when CEO succession …

The Impact Of Corporate Governance Principles On Board Characteristics: An Australian Study, Ranya Fathallah Dakhelalla

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Corporate governance has been a key focus over recent times for Australian companies, particularly following the collapse of some large organisations which resulted in losses of billions of dollars along with the jobs, investments and the livelihoods of many Australians. This thesis investigates the impact of the ASX Principles of Good Corporate Governance which were introduced in 2003 to strengthen corporate governance in Australia in response to community concerns over the causes of those corporate collapses. This study examines the characteristics of directors of Australian listed companies on the ASX 50 index, particularly in relation to the characteristics of non-executive …

Corporate Governance, Conservatism And Firm Performance: Evidence From China, Yun Ren

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis examines the effect of the board of directors and supervisory board on conservatism and firm performance, respectively, and the benefits of conservatism on performance. In addition, this thesis investigates whether the effectiveness of firms’ governance on conservatism and firm performance is influenced by ownership concentration and state ownership. The extant literature has shown that conservatism reduced agency conflict and was beneficial for corporate governance in developed countries; however, little evidence has been provided for emerging countries such as China.

Sample companies are selected from the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges for the period from 2007 to 2010. Archival …

Nonprofit Board Members' Self-Perception In The Role Of Organizational Governance And The Balanced Scorecard, Jeffrey John Aulgur

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative case study examines the gap between expectations of board performance held by the senior leadership and the governing board's self-perception of their role in the governance of the nonprofit organization. The primary research question is: Is an analysis of the gap between governance expectations and the board members' self-perception of governance performance an effective methodology for enhancing the efficacy of the governing board of directors? Nonprofit governance and its effectiveness are difficult concepts to define, given the wide disparity in organizational sizes, structures, and missions. While the academic literature does not identify a dominant methodology for organizational effectiveness …

The Impact Of Appreciative Inquiry On Developing Interpersonal Competencies In Nonprofit Boards, Using The Case Of The San Benito Time Exchange, Alison Vallenari

Theses and Dissertations

This study researched the impact of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) on the development of interpersonal competencies in nonprofit boards, examining the case of the San Benito Time Exchange (SBTE), in Hollister, California. The study assessed five interpersonal competencies tied to organizational effectiveness, including: knowledge of one another, communication style, decision-making, conflict resolution, and ability to influence one another. All SBTE board members participated in pre-interviews, board retreat, and post-interviews, each using AI. Study findings indicated positive changes in four out of five measures. The SBTE case illustrated the positive impact of AI on the board's interpersonal competencies and indicated that AI …

Two Essays On Corporate Governance, Yuwei Wang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation includes two related chapters that investigate corporate governance. In the first chapter, we examine the effectiveness of board monitoring on CEOs. It is widely believed that outsider boards are better monitors. In fact, regulations now require that the board of directors of publicly traded firms be composed of a majority of independent directors (or outsiders). However, this paper documents that an insider-dominated board can monitor the CEO just as well as an outsider board can when the firm's CEO is hired from outside. The results suggest that what matters is not so much as the structure of the …

Perceptions Of The Effectiveness Of Not-For-Profit Board Development Opportunities, Daniel R. Abben

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Human service not-for-profit organizations provide goods and services that support the well being of members of society. While these organizations can vary in the goods and services that they provide and in the models that they use to provide those goods and services, they are all similar in that they are accountable to volunteer boards of directors. The literature contains myriad prescriptions boards can follow that will help them provide adequate governance to their organizations. In addition, researchers have identified specific competencies that are able to distinguish between low-performing and high-performing boards. Finally, research has suggested that a relationship exists …

Towards An Organizational Strategic Vitality Theory: A Study Of A Public Sector Board Of Directors, Keith L. Woodman

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Boards of directors govern practically all organizations of significant size in the public and private sector. Improving the understanding of how boards function is critical because when boards fail, the results can be devastating. Little is understood about the functioning of boards of directors in the public sector, which accounts for a significant amount of the gross national product of the world's economy. The author observed a public sector board of directors for one year. Using the grounded theory research method to analyze the observations, he generated a theory of organizational strategic vitality that describes how a board of directors …

The Effect Of Ownership Concentration, Board Of Directors, Audit Committee And Ethnicity On Conservative Accounting : Malaysian Evidence, Rahimah Mohamed Yunos

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis examines whether ownership concentration, board of directors, audit
committee and ethnicity of directors affect conservative accounting. Additionally,
this thesis examines whether the impact of firms’ governance on conservatism is
moderated by ownership concentration. Previous evidence has suggested that
conservative accounting controls the agency problem, but so far, there is no
evidence that it is applicable in Malaysian firms, as firms are closely held by the
controlling shareholders.

This thesis employs panel data on Malaysian listed companies observed over
seven years from 2001 to 2007. Malaysian firms are chosen as the sample
because they provide a useful setting for …

Understanding Charter School Governance: A Case Study Of A Conversion Charter School Board Of Directors, David Mark Silver Phd

Dissertations

The charter school movement has been at the forefront of educational reform since the 1990s. The majority of charter school research has focused on academic achievement and issues of access, equity, and funding. Less attention has focused on charter school governance, yet evidence suggests that governance challenges represent a significant impediment to the long-term sustainability of this movement. This qualitative case study examined the operations of a board of directors in a conversion charter school. The study included observations of monthly board of directors meetings over a 16-month period (February 2008–June 2009), interviews with members of the board of directors …

Essays On Mutual Fund Governance And The Advisory Fee Contracts, Yaman Erzurum

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three studies related to corporate governance of equity mutual funds in a framework of relations between the three closely interrelated actors of mutual fund industry. The mutual fund advisers, the shareholders and the mutual fund board being the advocate of shareholders rights. The first study analyzes the advisory fee, using a survivorship bias free data set of 176 equity funds managed by 125 different advisers. The price of professional portfolio management provided by the mutual fund adviser depends not only on the fund characteristics but also on the fund objective, the adviser's portfolio related and management …

An Investigation Of The Impact Of Corporate Governance On Decision To Expense Employee Stock Options, Ling Jiang

Theses and Dissertations

Corporations have the choice of expensing (using the fair value method), or non-expensing (using the intrinsic value method and provide pro forma disclosure in financial statement footnotes) of employee stock options. The current study examines how corporate governance factors affect such choices. Prior studies (Xie et al. 2003; Klein 2002; Peasnell et al. 2000) have indicated that certain corporate governance factors have an impact on corporate accounting behavior, including earnings management. Based on the assumption that expensing employee stock options is a good practice of accounting that improves earnings quality, it is hypothesized that these corporate governance factors would affect …

Optimizing The Involvement Of The Members Of Voluntary Organization Boards: Keys To Motivation, Sarah Cox

Theses

Not available.