Article: Board of directors' configurations and the performance of banks: lessons learned from the global financial crisis Journal: International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics (IJBGE) 2023 Vol.17 No.3 pp.223 - 245 Abstract: Our paper analyses the characteristics of the boards of directors of the best performing listed Italian banks during the last global financial crisis (from 2008 to 2015). Through a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), the study identifies three different board configurations (archetypes) that these banks adopted: a committee-based board, a gender diversity-based board, and a large size-based board. Although different in some of their characteristics, these configurations share the rationale of favouring the advisory services that the board can provide to managers in their decision-making activities. These services, in turn, are particularly valuable in a time of high risk and uncertainty for banks. With its results, the paper contributes to the literature on the relationship between board characteristics and organisational performance and to a better understanding of the configurations that can best serve when firms' decision-making, for various reasons, becomes particularly complex and can benefit from board support. Our results also contribute to further detail the governance characteristics of banks in the Italian context. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: Board of directors' configurations and the performance of banks: lessons learned from the global financial crisis

Authors: Nicola Cucari; Michele Simoni; Antonio Renzi

Addresses: Department of Management, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Castro Laurenziano 9, 00161 Rome, Italy ' Department of Management Studies and Quantitative Methods, University of Naples Parthenope, Via Generale Parisi 13, 80132, Naples, Italy ' Department of Management, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Castro Laurenziano 9, 00161, Rome, Italy

Abstract: Our paper analyses the characteristics of the boards of directors of the best performing listed Italian banks during the last global financial crisis (from 2008 to 2015). Through a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), the study identifies three different board configurations (archetypes) that these banks adopted: a committee-based board, a gender diversity-based board, and a large size-based board. Although different in some of their characteristics, these configurations share the rationale of favouring the advisory services that the board can provide to managers in their decision-making activities. These services, in turn, are particularly valuable in a time of high risk and uncertainty for banks. With its results, the paper contributes to the literature on the relationship between board characteristics and organisational performance and to a better understanding of the configurations that can best serve when firms' decision-making, for various reasons, becomes particularly complex and can benefit from board support. Our results also contribute to further detail the governance characteristics of banks in the Italian context.

Keywords: board of directors; board role; financial performance; bank governance; qualitative comparative analysis.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBGE.2023.130083

International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics, 2023 Vol.17 No.3, pp.223 - 245

Received: 27 Mar 2021
Accepted: 02 Sep 2021
Published online: 05 Apr 2023 *

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Title: Board of directors' configurations and the performance of banks: lessons learned from the global financial crisis

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