Improving Board Knowledge with Information and Communication Technologies

Abstract

There is increased pressure for a more active role in corporate directors’ oversight and several surveys are reporting that directors still do not have the necessary information and knowledge to help them fulfill their emerging roles and responsibilities. These factors have created an urgent need for organizations to examine their board’s knowledge deficiencies and find adequate solutions. Although information and communication technologies (ICT) have the potential to dramatically improve the ability of boards to identify, acquire, analyze and act on the most relevant knowledge, they remain under studied and underused. The objective of this paper is to develop some propositions on the way boards of directors can potentially improve their decision making process through various knowledge strategies supported by information and communication technology. To do so, we perform a “knowledge audit” of boards based on a review of the literature on corporate board information and decision making limitations. Then we relate these problems to the literature on ICT for potential solutions, following a design science research methodology. We also describe the current commercial board portal tools that have emerged to support the work of corporate directors. Our results can provide guidance to companies and their boards wishing to implement a knowledge strategy that addresses board widespread problems such as information asymmetry, information overload, and groupthink.