Towards a Configural Theory of Influence within the Boardroom

Much research has focused on understanding the functioning/ misfunctioning of boards of directors. However, a simple yet relevant question pertaining to who has the most and least to say within the board has remained largely unanswered. We draw on classical group and team research to better understand this phenomenon. Specifically, previous group research has highlighted the importance of the formal role, social dominance, prototypicality, and social and intellectual competence to become influential within groups. We integrate these topics and explore the complex interdependencies in boardrooms. We use fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) on a sample of 299 Dutch supervisory directors in 60 boards to elaborate theory on how directors become influential within the board. Specifically, our findings highlight that directors can improve their influence level within the board via their behavioral cues; however, the options for non-prototypical directors are much narrower. Overall, our configurations support our theoretical arguments and provide evidence for the presence of equifinality of influence patterns within the boardroom because of interconnected and hard-to-isolate dynamics at play within the boardroom. As such, our study offers novel theoretical and empirical insights to academics and practitioners alike.