Investigating Advisory Board Roles Across The Organizational Life Cycle: A Multiple Case Study Of Danish Micro And Small Enterprises

Abstract

This thesis investigates the use of advisory boards in Danish micro and small enterprises across the start-up, the growth, and the maturity phases. The research is conducted as advisory boards are becoming increasingly implemented globally. In contrast, no previous academic research seems to have been conducted on how they are and can be used in a Danish context. Additionally, little research has been done on why advisory boards are used in different ways across the organizational life cycle in any empirical context. Therefore, this study aims to answer the research question: “Why do Danish micro and small enterprises use their advisory board in different ways across the organizational life cycle?”. In order to investigate the formulated research question, this study draws upon a post-positivist research philosophy and the Eisenhardt Method as a research strategy to build a novel and comprehensive framework. This study empirically draws upon a multiple case study of six Danish micro and small enterprises to do so. First, this thesis finds that Danish micro and small enterprises are found to use their advisory boards in several ways simultaneously and, with this, have advisory boards that take on different role compositions of the following advisory board roles: the Advisory Role, the Networking Role, the Endorsing Role, the Governing Role, the Encouraging Role, the Working Role, and the Political Role. Furthermore, this thesis finds that Danish micro and small enterprises use those roles differently as they encounter different organizational life cycle phase conditions and events. This leads some companies to make decisions that lead to organization-specific conditions, e.g., implementing a board of directors, initiating a radical change initiative, or hiring a new CEO. As Danish micro and small enterprises face such conditions, and events and make decisions that lead to organization-specific conditions, some find that they as a function depend on access to specific external resources. In some instances, Danish micro and small enterprises use their advisory board to access such external resources, having them take on one or more of the before mentioned roles. Ultimately, it is concluded that Danish micro and small enterprises use their advisory boards in different ways across the organizational life cycle because they depend upon access to different external resources due to different (1) phase conditions, (2) phase events, and/or (3) organization-specific conditions. The conclusions provide some entirely new academic insights into how advisory boards can be used while simultaneously introducing new findings on why advisory boards are used in these ways. The conclusions provide critical managerial implications for managers of Danish micro and small enterprises in the start-up, growth, and maturity phases seeking to understand why they use them in specific ways and how advisory boards can be used differently. Furthermore, these findings will allow future researchers to, for example, investigate how advisory boards can be used better; a topic of increasing importance as more companies introduce advisory boards.