Advisory Boards in Startups: Investigating the Roles of Advisory Boards in German Technology-Based Startups

The author shows that advisory boards in technology-based startups have seven different roles and functions: control, advice, networking, signalling, capital provision, co-management, coordination. It is shown that venture capital investors try to influence the importance of these roles in favour of control, coordination and co-management. Contrary to this, the satisfaction of founders as well as advisory board members increases with a higher importance of advice, networking and signalling. This analysis provides both qualitative and quantitative empirical data on the usage of those boards in practice.

Contents

Literature Review of Research on Governing Boards
Roles of Governing Boards Explained through Agency Theory, Resource Dependency Theory, Stewardship Theory, Stakeholder Theory, Institutional Theory and Managerial Hegemony
Exploring Roles Using Qualitative and Quantitative Methods
Recommendations How to Use Advisory Boards in Practice
Target Groups

Researchers and students of business-related fields, particular entrepreneurship and corporate governance
Entrepreneurs and investors, especially in the context of technology-based startups