Board roles and strategic orientation among Taiwanese nonprofit sport organisations

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between strategic orientation and board roles. In particular, the research looks at how board roles of nonprofit sport organisations with a dual board structure are associated with organisational strategy in 25 summer Olympic sport organisations in Taiwan. The study found that the majority of board roles for both directors and supervisors can be statistically distinguished from each other in relation to organisational strategic orientation. The study advances the understanding of nonprofit board roles and practices by differentiating between board of directors and board of supervisors. Furthermore, the findings support using specific recruitment practices that should strengthen nonprofit boards. This finding can also support further research into the relationship between an organisation's strategic orientation and other governance elements, including board composition, structure and culture.

Keywords:

• sport
• nonprofit organisations
• strategic orientation
• board roles

Notes

Before the MANOVA was performed, a series of relevant statistical tests were undertaken to ensure its valid use, including tests of normality, equality of covariance matrix, linearity and multicollinearity (Hair et al., 2006). Details of these are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Pillai's trace (p < 0.01), Wilks’ λ (p < 0.01), Hotelling's trace (p < 0.01) and Roy's largest root (p < 0.01) all reached the criterion for significance of 0.05.

‘Manage vision and purpose’ (F = 5.21, p < 0.01), ‘board duty’ (F = 8.09, p < 0.001) and ‘stakeholder focus’ (F = 3.62, p < 0.05).

Wilks’ λ of functions 1 (Wilks’ λ = 0.92, p < 0.01) and 2 (Wilks’ λ = 0.97, p < 0.05) had a significant value.

Pillai's trace (p < 0.01), Wilks’ λ (p < 0.01), Hotelling's trace (p < 0.01) and Roy's largest root (p < 0.01) all reached the criterion for significance of 0.05.

‘Monitoring results’ (F = 7.91, p < 0.05) and ‘board duty and process’ (F = 8.69, p < 0.05).