Germann, CornelCornelGermann2023-04-132023-04-132023-02-20https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/107712As primus inter pares (Latin for first among equals), the chair of the board of directors holds a unique organisational position. For fulfilling the non-transferable duties pursuant to Article 716a revCO, it is essential that the chair is a person who has rational economic and socio-emotional skills. To date, however, it is unclear how organisations structure the search for a chairperson. On the one hand, this ambiguity arises from a legal perspective, as succession-related formal regulations (hard law) or best-governance principles (soft law) are rare and often lack specificity, and on the other hand, from a business perspective, as there is a lack of sufficient attention and diligence. Previous research on board governance has primarily focused on the dyadic relationship between board composition and organisational performance (board effectiveness research). However, as board succession is a dynamic process, the research focus should go beyond a pure output/performance paradigm. Following Berns and Klarner (2017) and Kesner and Sebora (1994), this doctoral study therefore empirically analyses the competences (input), moderators (process), and disclosure (output) of board chair succession practices for publicly listed organisations in Switzerland. A mixed-methods design was used to examine 40 qualitative expert interviews and a subsequent survey of 80 chairpersons and heads of nomination committees applying grounded theory analysis and Kruskal-Wallis H and Dunn-Bonferroni post hoc tests. For input, the empirical results showed that person-related competences are more important for a chairperson than work-related competences, with integrity, stamina, and strategic thinking being the three most important. With regard to process, business and governance contingencies were found to be the most influential, underlining why there is no one process. For confidentiality reasons, another central expectation identified from the analysis was that organisations are more interested in involving internal rather than external stakeholders in succession planning. Finally, in terms of output, the analysis of the doctoral study showed that economic governance motives highly influence voluntary disclosure principles. In this regard, organisations favour traditional investor-specific channels and prioritise people-level over structure-level information in disclosure.enCorporate GovernanceVorsitzenderEDIS-5277Chairpersoncompetencessuccession processvoluntary disclosuresuccessiondoctoral thesis