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The purpose of this paper is to use Stewart’s model of role as a lense from which to explore chairperson and CEO role dynamics in addressing strategic paradox and tension.

The paper draws on 29 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with chairpersons and CEOs of UK-listed companies. Interview data are subjected to role analysis using Stewart’s (1982) Demands-Constraints-Choice (DCC) model of role.

Findings indicate that relationship levels of trust, communication and chairperson time enable strategic tensions to be raised and confronted in the relationship reducing defensiveness. Two distinct approaches to handle strategic tensions are found. The CEO-led approach predominates and rests on less flexible role boundaries, requiring the chairperson to proactively identify strategic tensions and perform an advisory/mentoring role. The shared leadership approach, less prevalent, rests on highly flexible role boundaries where the skills and experience of each incumbent become more relevant, enabling the separation of efforts and integration of strategic tensions in the relationship in a “dynamic complementarity of function”.

The paper only applies to the UK context and is limited to contexts where CEO and chairperson roles are separate. The paper draws on individual perceptions of chairperson and CEOs (i.e. not pairs).

The paper provides insights to practicing CEOs and chairperson on two distinct ways of working through strategic paradox and tensions.

The paper adds to the scarce literature at chairperson and CEO roles and strategic paradox and tension.

Boards presently are considered the most critical component in improving corporate governance (CG). Board diversity is increasingly being recommended as a tool for enhancing firm performance. Academic research and regulatory action regarding board diversity are focussed mainly on gender and ethnic composition of boards. However, the perspective of board members on board diversity and its impact is mostly missing. Moreover, while strategic leadership perspective suggests that a broader set of upper echelon’s characteristics may shape their actions, empirical evidence investigating the impact of less-explored attributes of diversity is almost non-existent. While the research on the input–output relationship between board diversity and firm performance remains equivocal, an intervening relationship between board diversity and board effectiveness needs to be understood. The purpose of this paper is to address all three limitations and explore the subject from board members’ perspective.

The paper presents the findings of qualitative, exploratory research conducted by interviewing 42 board members of FTSE 350 companies. The data are analysed thematically.

The findings of the research suggest that board members of FTSE 350 companies consider the diversity of functional experience to be a critical requirement for boards’ role-effectiveness. Functionally diverse boards manage external dependencies more effectively and challenge assumptions of the executive more efficiently, thus improving CG. The findings significantly contribute to the literature on board diversity, as well as to strategic leadership theory and other applicable theories. The research is conducted with a relatively small but elite and difficult to approach set of 42 board members of FTSE 350 companies.

The paper makes a unique and significant contribution to praxis by presenting the perspective of practitioners of CG – board members. The findings may encourage board nomination committees to seek board diversity beyond the gender and ethnic characteristics of directors. The findings may also be relevant for policy formulation, as they indicate that functionally diverse boards have improved effectiveness in a range of board roles.

Board diversity is about building a board that accurately reflects the make-up of the population and stakeholders of the society where the company operates. The aim of board diversity is to cultivate a broad range of attributes and perspectives that reflects real-world demographics as boards need to continue to earn their “licence to operate in society” as organisations have a responsibility to multiple constituents and stakeholders, including the community and the wider society within which they exist. Building social capital through diversity has value in the wider context of modern society and achieving social justice.

The paper makes an original and unique contribution to strategic leadership theory by strengthening the argument of the theory. The paper explores beyond widely researched attributes of gender and ethnicity on boards and explores the impact of a less-researched characteristic of directors – their functional experience. Moreover, the paper opens the “black box” of CG – boards, and presents the perspectives of board members. The findings indicate that board members in FTSE 350 boards define diversity more broadly than academics and regulatory agencies often do.

Although the current wave of globalization is the result of unprecedented scientific and technological advances, through history, movements of an international nature have been, to a large extent, about the spread of political and economic ideas across borders. “Geopolitical realism is based on the interests of the state”. Scientific and technological advances, together with the opening of markets to the free passage of goods, services and finance, has led to a huge growth in world trade. However, such positive developments have also their downside. The findings of the United Nations Human Development Programme Report highlight that global inequalities in income and living standards have reached grotesque proportions. Further, such disparities are linked to ever‐intensified environmental degradation and the extinction of some 11,046 species. Such circumstances have witnessed the growth of community‐based local currencies, the emergence of a social movement advocating corporate social reasonability (CSR) and a growing literature critical of the Anglo‐American corporate governance model, where shareholder wealth maximization is the driving force. Yet, the philosophy and practice of shareholder wealth maximization persists. This paper explores the effects of free‐market economics, globalization and western capitalist practices in terms of their consequences for the planet, people, profit and posterity (the four Ps). A case is made outlining the need for an advanced corporate governance model that integrates the four Ps. In so doing, the paper seeks inspiration from the ancient philosophy of Buddhism and, in conclusion, examines the role of the Business School in developing future, reflexive practitioners, equipped to effectively provide the necessary balance between shareholder expectations and stakeholder needs within a new paradigm of a balanced society.

Board diversity has been a hotly debated topic in the field of corporate governance. The paper examines the role of board chairperson and its moderating effect on the relationship between job-related diversity and boards’ strategic tasks performance. The purpose of this paper is to add on our body of knowledge about the impact of job-related diversity on boards’ strategic tasks performance.

The paper applies the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique to examine survey responses from chief executive officers (CEOs). Both the measurement model and structural model have obtained good results, supporting the appropriateness of using the SEM approach.

The findings suggest that there is a positive association between job-related diversity and boards’ strategic tasks performance, which is moderated by a chairperson’s leadership efficacy and the option of a former-CEO as board chair.

To achieve the intended effect of job-related diversity in boards, policymakers need to be mindful about the importance of the board chairperson. Board chairperson’s characteristics such as leadership efficacy and a former-CEO experience would amplify the positive effect of diversity.

This research paper contributes to the literature on board diversity, board leadership and strategic management of firms. Findings validated researchers’ concern about the negligence of examining moderating factors in board diversity research. Moreover, results echo the concern that board leadership research should shift the attention from structural aspects to the behavioral issues. Finally, this study is the first to show the positive influence of a board chairperson in disseminating benefits of a diverse board.

Using the attention-based view, this paper aims to examine whether and how board composition might influence the allocation of board attention to corporate sustainability.

This is a conceptual paper that uses a theoretical perspective pointing to the importance of generating a board composition that might benefit both business case framing and paradoxical framing, a typology introduced in managerial cognition literature to explain managerial decision-making.

The conclusions emerging from the reviewed literature suggest that boards that have realized an independence of perspective focus on shareholder profit maximization at the expense of considerations of corporate sustainability. It emerges that women directors who have adopted paradoxical framing can enable boards to consider not only economic but also environmental and social issues of sustainability during board decision-making. Further, it is noted that the effect of gender diversity on allocation of board attention to corporate sustainability is contingent upon contextual (board openness) and structural (chairperson leadership) factors that facilitate social interactions inside boardrooms.

By considering alternative cognitive frames as well as social interactions, the propositions contribute to a better understanding of the allocation of board attention regarding ambiguous sustainability issues.

This paper aims to present the outcomes from 40 one-to-one semi-structured interviews and 12 focus group sessions with company secretaries, chairmen, CEOs, chief financial officer (CFOs), senior independent director (SIDs) and NEDs, about the role of the company secretary.

Lukes’ (1974, 2005) third dimension of power is engaged in thematic analysis of this strategic leadership role and its contribution to Board effectiveness.

The findings identify “discretionary capacity” as being critical to effective role contribution.

Whilst the inquiry included international participants, e.g. multi-national Board members and company secretaries, it was conducted within the UK.

Having a range of discretion is particularly necessary at this time, when the new governance regime is broadening its demands on the role of the company secretary to interact with wider stakeholders.

Better Board effectiveness is critical to broader sustainability of business in society.

An emergent model of the company secretary role is offered as a tool for building discretionary capacity, based on key technical, commercial and social characteristics, in their contexts – understood together as “Breadth” and “Majesty”. Breadth establishes a competency, whereas majesty, the refined high-level social qualities. This study concludes that the company secretary role is highly dependent on the preferences of the chairman, in enabling them to make an effective contribution to the Board.

With ever greater needs to account for the demands and desires of multiple stakeholders, it is proposed that governance considerations need, as much, to apply to the application of IS/IT challenges as to the whole corporation. The arguments for greater governance attention in the IS/IT arena are presented. Two key models of governance are highlighted, the control and stakeholder models. It is concluded that the stakeholder philosophy to governance will become pre‐eminent in the future.

Israel is characterised by economic growth that is accompanied not only by prosperity but also by increasing poverty. This paper aims to conceptualise the role of Israel’s social enterprises in reducing the gap between prosperous and disadvantaged populations.

This qualitative study is based on 23 in-depth interviews. It makes use of a theoretical framework that incorporates two elements: cosmopolitanism and social entrepreneurship. Cosmopolitanism, together with government policies that aim to develop free enterprise and international trade, support entrepreneurship and advance education, accompanies and facilitates prosperity. Whilst prosperity increases inequality, social entrepreneurship develops as a tool to mitigate the side effects of economic growth in the form of the increasing gap between the rich and the poor.

This paper argues that the principal reason why the gap evolved and is increasing is in the discrepancy between rapidly rising requirements presented by the innovation-focussed economy and the workers’ skills. Based on interviews with social entrepreneurs who are (co)founders or managers of businesses with a social purpose, findings show that the gap between prosperity and social deprivation could be bridged by increasing workers’ capacity to align their skills with employers’ requirements, which is the area to which Israeli social enterprises contribute.

The paper argues that cosmopolitan orientation is one of the contributors to economic growth and innovation, whilst prosperity increases the gap between high- and low-income groups. The paper contributes to the body of knowledge about social entrepreneurs by applying the framework that makes use of cosmopolitanism as an important driver of Israeli social entrepreneurship, which helps to explain the role that social business enterprises play in reducing the gap between prosperous and disadvantaged populations.

This study empirically examines the impact of board diversity on environmental, social and governance (ESG) outcomes in organizations from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The study aims to extend prior literature by covering the impacts of the institutional context on board diversity and ESG outcomes.

Using a thematic analysis of interviews with 42 UAE board members, this research uncovers the effects of institutional context on ESG outcomes. The study focuses on the impact of culture, the influence of regulatory bodies and the relationship between critical board diversity traits and ESG.

Three major themes emerged from the data: the impact of institutional context and culture, the impact of regulatory bodies and critical board diversity traits’ relationship with ESG. The findings indicate that the institution’s cultural and regulatory context impacts board diversity and ESG. The findings also demonstrate that the board’s functional diversity (educational and occupational diversity) and age diversity impact ESG outcomes.

This research contributes to resource dependence theory by indicating the specific resources diverse directors bring to a corporate board. The study also highlights how institutional context dictates the types of resources directors seek for effective ESG implementation, providing a novel insight into board diversity’s role in ESG performance.

The purpose of this paper is to survey various meanings attached to a public–private partnership (PPP) and related aspects in Western literature and to identify commonalities and differences between them. Additionally, the article intends to critically assess conflicting and overlapping views on contractual and institutional PPPs, their forms and models and to draw insights for transitional economies.

The article contrasts and compares views on PPP meanings, forms and models within Western PPP literature and also draws comparisons with understanding of partnership aspects in the Russian language sources. The paper examines theories underpinning PPPs, builds connections to PPP advantages and drawbacks and provides critical assessment of net benefits that PPPs may bring along to the society.

The article concludes that future PPP research in transitional countries such as Kazakhstan and Russia, particularly in the area of organisational and power arrangements in partnerships, may delineate new concepts such as government as a guarantor of a PPP project, social significance of a PPP project and risk management in a country’s contextual environment.

Research in the field of PPPs in transitional countries such as Russia and Kazakhstan is in its infancy. The paper intends to contribute to the body of knowledge about PPPs by providing detailed account and categorisation of their principal meanings, forms, models and underpinning theories and by drawing insights for future research in transitional countries.