Perceptions about Boards in Sme Sized Family Businesses

2009

This paper reports on a study of the attitudes to the formation and roles of formalised active boards in Australian small to medium sized (SME) family businesses. While the literature on governance includes guidelines for effective boards, many family owned businesses perceive they are functioning adequately without formalising a board structure. This study employed a qualitative approach and explored the board functions of nine family business cases drawing on the Hilmer and Tricker (1994) framework. This framework summarises the roles of boards as: formulating strategy, setting policies, supervising executive management and providing accountability. Cases included those with and without a…