ABSTRACT
The focus of this chapter is on the board’s role in strategy, situated within the context of sport governance. The framing chosen for this chapter follows two questions, which have been derived from an examination of the literature in three specific contexts: for-profit governance, nonprofit governance and sport governance. The first context represents an early scholarly emphasis (some five decades ago), largely from the for-profit governance literature, on the board’s compliance and monitoring role, including holding the CEO to account (Stiles, 2001). Supported by agency theory many scholars focused on understanding this aspect of board function, potentially at the expense of exploring its strategic role (Kerr & Werther, 2008). In moving beyond a focus on monitoring and compliance, the question as to “why should boards be involved in strategy” was tackled by corporate (for-profit) governance scholars beginning in the 1970s (Pugliese, Bezemer, Zattoni, Huse, Van den Bosch & Volberda, 2009). This focus has directed scholarly efforts of nonprofit and sport governance researchers to explore the board’s role in strategy over the past 15 years (Brown & Iverson, 2004; Ferkins, Shilbury & McDonald, 2005).
