Do you feel the same? The role of affect on board performance
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2020-07-07
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en
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Abstract
In an attempt to unravel what influences board performance, this research introduces affect as a new theoretical and research perspective to study boards of directors. Affect serves as a unique angle to grasp the psychological- and social processes in boards. The relationship between affect and board performance and the moderating affect or tenure is examined in the setting of Dutch water authorities by analysing videos of board meetings. Consequently, this thesis is an answer to the call of S.G. Johnson et al. (2013) for research in new contexts, mechanism-based research and exploring new data in order to extend our understanding of boards and to reveal more complex relationships. To explain how affect influences board performance two mechanisms of information processing are used: steering attention and the way people deal with information. Information processing influences decision-making and ultimately performance. None of the proposed hypothesis could be accepted. Nevertheless, as this research is the first to examine the influence of affect within boards it contributes to the literature by showing a novel approach to extend our understanding and change how we see boards. Moreover, boundaries of existing literature on affect and boards of directors are pointed out. Also, a methodological contribution is made by using techniques based on machine learning that make it possible to measure affect more objectively and to analyse visual material such as videos. Lastly, serval suggestions for future research have been proposed. One of them is to investigate affect within top management teams as one of the control variables, the negative emotions of the top management team, was significant in multiple models and therefore offers a promising area to further explore.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen