Article: The Role of Emergence in Leveraging the Value of Board Director International Experience Journal: Journal of Business and Management (JBM) 2024 Vol.29 No.2 pp.27 - 60 Abstract: Purpose - This study explores the relationship between directors with professional international experience and firm performance. To theorize when the insights of these directors are likely most impactful for firm performance, we draw on distinct streams of research on emergence: including emergence-enabling states for human capital resources (HCR), emergence of unit-level knowledge, and the role of social capital on HCR emergence (HCRE). Method - The study tests the model on a sample of 461 firm-year observations of S&P large-cap U.S. manufacturing firms between 2010-2014, assessing both short-term and long-term performance. Findings - We find that professional international experience directors positively impact firm performance, contingent on the board committee network density, which is a factor that both enables and reflects the affective emergence-enabling state of cohesion. Limitation - This study's generalizability may be somewhat limited because the sample consists only of boards of firms headquartered in the United States. Implications - The findings build the work in international business on the conditions under which having more board directors who have worked internationally can benefit the overall performance of the firm. The findings also meaningfully build the broader (up to this point, largely OB focused) literature on human capital resource emergence, by testing how such theories apply to an upper echelons context. Specifically, this work suggests that the emergence enabling state of cohesion, may be especially critical for groups of high-level executives to thrive as a unit, in line with the HCRE theory. Originality - The theoretical model in this study integrates insights from the predominately OB-focused emergence literature, with strategy/finance research on corporate governance and boards of directors (including the critical role of board committees). The supplemental tests support that these effects are likely due to the mechanisms put forward by the HCRE theory. In this way, the study validates broadly and illustrates specifically how strategy and international business scholarship can benefit from leveraging OB literature on emergence in work groups. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: The Role of Emergence in Leveraging the Value of Board Director International Experience

Authors: Andre Havrylyshyn

Addresses: Author address listing can be found in the "About the Authors" section at the end of the article.

Abstract: Purpose - This study explores the relationship between directors with professional international experience and firm performance. To theorize when the insights of these directors are likely most impactful for firm performance, we draw on distinct streams of research on emergence: including emergence-enabling states for human capital resources (HCR), emergence of unit-level knowledge, and the role of social capital on HCR emergence (HCRE). Method - The study tests the model on a sample of 461 firm-year observations of S&P large-cap U.S. manufacturing firms between 2010-2014, assessing both short-term and long-term performance. Findings - We find that professional international experience directors positively impact firm performance, contingent on the board committee network density, which is a factor that both enables and reflects the affective emergence-enabling state of cohesion. Limitation - This study's generalizability may be somewhat limited because the sample consists only of boards of firms headquartered in the United States. Implications - The findings build the work in international business on the conditions under which having more board directors who have worked internationally can benefit the overall performance of the firm. The findings also meaningfully build the broader (up to this point, largely OB focused) literature on human capital resource emergence, by testing how such theories apply to an upper echelons context. Specifically, this work suggests that the emergence enabling state of cohesion, may be especially critical for groups of high-level executives to thrive as a unit, in line with the HCRE theory. Originality - The theoretical model in this study integrates insights from the predominately OB-focused emergence literature, with strategy/finance research on corporate governance and boards of directors (including the critical role of board committees). The supplemental tests support that these effects are likely due to the mechanisms put forward by the HCRE theory. In this way, the study validates broadly and illustrates specifically how strategy and international business scholarship can benefit from leveraging OB literature on emergence in work groups.

Keywords: Boards of directors; international work experience; firm performance; emergence.

DOI: 10.1504/JBM.2024.141306

Journal of Business and Management, 2024 Vol.29 No.2, pp.27 - 60

Published online: 05 Sep 2024 *

Title: The Role of Emergence in Leveraging the Value of Board Director International Experience

Keep up-to-date