In the first phase of the project, the Fellow developed the research framework using a multidisciplinary perspective by drawing on insights from marketing research and combined these with the research from the corporate governance field. This resulted in a new conceptualisation of value creation by merging ideas behind SDL and its focus on value creation with the research on corporate governance which has multiple and diverging definitions of value and value creation embedded in its body, published in a peer-reviewed book chapter (Yar Hamidi, 2019).
Next in the project, a cross country database using secondary data from Retriever, SCB Sweden and BvD Orbis and Fame over five years was compiled by the Fellow. The database was built with firm and board data on a random representative sample of SMEs for all three countries. The database was used to illuminate structural differences between the boards of SMEs in the UK, Sweden and Denmark. Among other insights, the analysis reveals that SMEs in the UK are generally larger in size (measured by number of employees), and have larger boards, compared to Swedish and Danish SMEs. Further, the data showed that SMEs in the UK have a larger proportion of women on their boards than their Swedish and Danish counterparts. The latter has important implications for initiatives regarding gender diversity on boards, which have hitherto focused mainly on large public-listed firms.
While the overall structure of the boards was interesting to illuminate, the Fellow searched for explanations and insights about the behavioural aspects of boards in SMEs. This was done in a survey study of a cohort of SME directors and owners in the three countries. In doing so, the project has collected data on the inner work of boards in SMEs and contributes to our understanding of how boards of directors contribute to value creation. The analysis of the survey data resulted in the identification of four board categories among SMEs in the cohort - Developing, Boosting, Maximiser and Outward boards. These different board categories are characterised by different compositions along with constellations of competencies among directors and tasks focus towards value creation.
Finally, the project collected qualitative data through a range of methods (interviews, workshops with directors, a longitudinal case study) to provide further explanations behind the quantitative results and to facilitate the transfer of the results into practice (via academic- practitioner dialogues in the workshops). This resulted in the development of the Governance Model Canvas and review and development of an organisation’s governance processes.
The fellow attended 8 academic conferences and workshops, organised 14 workshops with SME owners, directors and managers, and 3 end-of-project practitioner conferences where the results of the project were presented and discussed.
