Board of directors' tasks: the effect of board capital and conflict among the board members

This study analyzes the effect of directors’ human and external social capital on the monitoring and resource provision tasks of the board. Furthermore, this study examines the moderating effect of cognitive and affective conflicts among the board directors on these relationships. Based on a sample of 92 cases, this study finds that the board directors’ human and external social capital is positively associated with board’s monitoring and resource provision board tasks . The results suggest that cognitive conflict positively moderates the relationship between board directors’ external social capital with the monitoring, and negatively with the resource provision tasks. Affective conflict was found to negatively moderate the relationship between directors’ external social capital and the resource provision tasks, and positively moderate the relationship between board directors’ human capital and resource provision tasks. This study suggests that the behavioral perspective, which takes into account the dynamics and interaction in the board, has considerable predictive power.