Summer school “Corporate Governance and the Effectiveness of Boards”

Summer school “Corporate Governance and the Effectiveness of Boards”
10-14 July 2017 / Application deadline: May 1 2017

Research on boards focuses on how they influence firm strategic decisions and outcomes. Traditionally, this research focuses on linking board and/or individual characteristics to measures of firm decision-making and performance. More recently, researchers using this approach have begun to contextualize boards and focus on the impact of formal (law, regulations, quality of government) and informal institutions (culture, values, trust) on firm decisions and outcomes.

Recently, a new approach to board research has emerged, which has been directed toward cognitive and behavioral aspects of teams’ and boards’ decision-making processes. Studies following this approach aim at opening the so-called “black box” to find out how interactions between individual team and board members affect decision making, team and board effectiveness and, ultimately, also firm performance.

The aim of this summer school is to discuss the strength and weaknesses of both research pillars and their contributions to our understanding of how boards are formed and how they work in order to effectively perform their roles. We explicitly aim to determine to what extent their questions, methods, data, and outcomes are complementary or substitutes. Our approach is multi-disciplinary, meaning that we discuss research from economics, finance, management and sociology and psychology. We will also deal with measurement issues and discuss datasets and methodologies to use these datasets in research. Next to lectures, participants are invited to present their own research (ideas) in the field of board effectiveness.
The lectures will be provided by Sucheta Nadkarni (University of Cambridge, UK), Craig Crossland (University of Notre Dame, USA), and Niels Hermes, Reggy Hooghiemstra and Kees van Veen (University of Groningen, The Netherlands).

Program details: The summer school will start on Monday (10th July) and end on Friday (14th July). Certificates of attendance will be handed out on the last day of the summer school. The program consists of five days from 9-5 with lectures, workshops, assignments and (paper) presentations. Students who prepare and attend all lectures and workshops, and complete their assignments will receive a certificate of attendance, worth the equivalent of 3 EC.

Costs: €650 (excl. housing) €1,000 (incl. housing). The fee 0f €650 includes: welcoming drinks on Sunday, participation in the program, course materials, lunches, coffee, tea and refreshments and dinner on Monday and Thursday evening.

More information: Specific information on this summer school can be found here. For a general overview of our summer schools please visit www.rug.nl/summerschools. Questions about this summer school can be sent to Mrs. Astrid Beerta (a.beerta@rug.nl). Please state the name of the summer school in the subject line.