Opening the black box: Unpacking board involvement in innovation
通过对四家上市制药公司的多案例研究，揭示了董事会参与产品创新的分阶段过程：先由专家董事主导科学创新，再由全体董事会介入战略层面，且参与方式在主动性、时机和正式程度上因层级而异。
Corporate governance research suggests that boards of directors play key roles in governing company strategy. Although qualitative research has examined board–management relationships to describe board involvement in strategy, we lack detailed insights into how directors engage with organizational members for governing a complex and long-term issue such as product innovation. Our multiple-case study of four listed pharmaceutical firms reveals a sequential process of board involvement: Directors with deep expertise govern scientific innovation, followed by the full board’s involvement in its strategic aspects. The nature of director involvement varies across board levels in terms of the direction (proactive or reactive), timing (regular or spontaneous), and the extent of formality of exchanges between directors and organizational members. Our study contributes to corporate governance research by introducing the concept of board behavioral diversity and by theorizing about the multilevel, structural, and temporal dimensions of board behavior and its relational characteristics.