Board Size and Corporate Failure

Abstract

We discussed earlier whether it was possible — with our current state of knowledge — to identify the major determinants of corporate performance. In particular, the following question is often posed: ‘Given two companies belonging to the same industrial sector and operating in the same environment, what makes one more successful than the other?’ The practical implications of this question are self-evident, as discussed in this chapter and in the next. It is clear that, however you define ‘success’ and whatever the lessons learnt from case studies and current research, the problem of identifying what factors determine a given level of corporate performance is still unresolved.