Collision in the boardroom: Director skill interdependence and corporate entrepreneurship in technology‐intensive firms
Entrepreneurial directors lift corporate entrepreneurship only when finance-skilled directors do not dominate the board or its corporate development committee.
Summary
Studying technology-intensive firms, the authors find that directors with entrepreneurial experience increase the firm's investment in corporate entrepreneurship, but the effect weakens when finance-skilled directors are prevalent on the board or on its corporate development committee. They introduce the idea of director skill interdependence: the value of one director's skills depends on which other skills are in the room. The implication is that boards should design skill mixes and committee assignments together, and prevent one conflicting skill set from dominating, if they want to support venturing.
Editor's opinion
Adding an entrepreneurial director does not by itself make a board more supportive of new ventures. The effect depends on the other skills around the table, and finance-heavy boards and committees blunt it. Boards that want more corporate venturing should compose skills and committees deliberately, so that entrepreneurial voices are not outweighed at the point where investment is decided.
Key concepts
board composition · director skills · corporate entrepreneurship · committee design