Non-Executive Directors and Corporate Strategy: Theory and Exploratory Empirical Insights from FTSE 350 Companies

The objective of this thesis is to provide exploratory, theoretical, and new empirical insights into Non-Executive Directors’ (NEDs) contribution to corporate strategy within London Stock Exchange’s largest 350 companies (FTSE 350), all of which have the same legal and regulatory duties. This research deploys an interpretivist philosophy, responding to four fundamental research questions, with appropriate ontological, epistemological, and axiological considerations surrounding NEDs’ corporate strategy oversight. This research uniquely applies the constructs of Institutional Theory in conjunction with Instrumental Stakeholder Theory, whilst the empirical examination of NEDs’ oversight contributions into corporate strategy capabilities is considered in terms of their constituents: ‘Shaping’, ‘Conducting’ and ‘Deciding’ appropriate strategies. The research itself employed a mixed-method, parallel-layered, theoretically informed, content and descriptive analysis, including cross-sectional financial data analysis performed during 2019-2020, targeting data covering FTSE 350 NEDs’ strategic oversight role. The theoretical and empirical research provides original and valuable insights into NED’s involvement in corporate strategy. Specifically, it produced no observable evidence of the existence of any Corporate Strategy Committees involving FTSE 350 NEDs. The explicit and implicit contributions to knowledge and policies arising from the research outcomes is the identification of a need for NEDs to show greater strategic leadership and become directly involved in a proposed Corporate Strategy Committee. This would afford the board greater strategic oversight to deliver more meaningful, measurable statements on the long-term sustainability of their company, i.e., over 5 to 10 years, within their Strategic Report. This research identifies the need for further research into theoretical and methodological issues relating to FTSE 350 NEDs’ strategic oversight role.