The impact of business environment and boards of directors on strategic decision-making: A case study of Greek listed companies

This thesis documents a study of the factors associated with Boards of Directors’ strategicdecisions. The premise upon which such a research initiative is founded concerns theincreased interest of academics and business practitioners in Board of Directors in the U.Kand in U.S in part arising from recent financial scandals made in major public companies.Despite this increased attention to Board of Directors, it is acknowledged that Boards ofDirectors is one of the most under-researched management topics and its research islimited in scope and scale.An extensive review of the literature revealed that a useful contribution to knowledgecould be derived from the investigation of the factors that influence Boards’ strategicdecisions in quoted organisations. The research objectives is then to investigate thestrategic decisions Boards of Directors and the organisation make by examining theenvironmental factors associated with the Board, the characteristics of the Board such asage, education, experience, composition, the Boards’ strategic choices in areas such asinnovation, strategic decisions and to examine the influence the Boards have onperformance. Despite the significant research interest in this topic, knowledge is stillincomplete.This thesis makes a significant contribution to the strategic management literature bydeveloping an integrative framework which examines strategic decisions from both contentand process perspectives. The model developed, identifies the influence on strategicdecisions, the environment, the characteristics of the Boards of Directors and itsinvolvement has as influence on strategic decisions. The empirical study is carried out in anew cultural context; Greece and more specifically to listed firms on the Athens StockExchange.A theoretical model has been created and following a deductive approach, primary datathrough questionnaires was collected from 105 Greek listed organisations. Data wasanalysed according to their descriptive properties and underlying correlation structure.Several principal components were derived from these analyses which were used inhypothesis testing. Subsequently, a multiple regression and GLM analyses were conductedin order to examine the interrelationships between the factors associated with Boards’strategic decisions. The research findings are discussed and considered in light of currentknowledge in the area. A number of conclusions are made from the findings. Furthermore,implications for academics and business practitioners are drawn that indicate the relevanceand applicability of this research to corporate governance practices. Limitations of theresearch and possible future research are set out.The thesis is organised into seven chapters which are entitled in the following order:literature review of Boards of Directors and development of theoretical framework;empirical approach and conceptualisation of the factors associated with boards’ strategicdecisions; descriptive research findings; principal component analysis and construction ofscale indices; multiple regression and GLM analyses; and, conclusions and implications ofthe study.