The non-profit board: a concise review of the empirical literature

Abstract

This article gives a concise review of the literature on non-profit boards. Given the lack of theoretical work on the subject, the focus of the article lies on the empirical work. This empirical work seems to have developed on two roads: one where the non-profit board is the dependent variable and one where the non-profit board is an independent variable in relation to other variables such as organisational performance. As this article will show, these empirical results often remain equivocal and consensus is lacking. The authors argue that a better insight in the composition and structure of the non-profit boards can contribute a lot to the understanding of the behaviour of non-profit organisations. Reprinted by permission of Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft