Understanding the Behavior of Nonprofit Boards of Directors: A Theory-Based Approach

The literature on nonprofit boards of directors is rich with prescriptive advice about the kinds of activities that should occupy the board’s time and attention. Using organizational theory that has dominated the empirical investigation of private sector board behavior (agency,r esource dependence, and institutional),this article contributes to the literature on nonprofit board governance in three important ways. First,it provides a link between theory and practice by identifying the theoretical assumptions that have served as the foundation for the “best practice” literature. Second,the article presents a theory-based framework of board behavior that identifies the environmental conditions and board/organizational considerations that are likely to affect board behavior. And finally,it offers a set of hypotheses that can be used in future empirical investigations that seeks to understand the conditions under which a nonprofit board might assume certain roles and responsibilities over others.