New perspectives on board research: changing the research agenda Morten Huse • Robert Hoskisson • Alessandro Zattoni • Riccardo Vigano ` Published online: 6 November 2009 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. 2009 Abstract Scholars and practitioners have recently devoted considerable attention to boards of directors, but far more research is needed. We still know little about how boards actually work and how their behavior may be improved to contribute to value creation. During more than two decades agency theory has been the dominant theory in studies about boards of directors. When relaxing some of the assumptions in agency theory several new pathways for new research arise. To present new perspectives on board research we follow in this essay some of the pathways arising from relaxing agency theory assumptions about complete con- tracts. Alternative theoretical approaches, research questions and methods are suggested. M. Huse Norwegian School of Management BI, Oslo, Norway e-mail: mhuse@online.no R. Hoskisson George R. Brown Professor of Strategic Management, Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA e-mail: robert.hoskisson@rice.edu A. Zattoni Management Department, Parthenope University, Naples, Italy A. Zattoni (&) Strategic and Entrepreneurial Management Department, SDA Bocconi School of Management, Milan, Italy e-mail: alessandro.zattoni@unibocconi.it R. Vigano ` Universita ` degli Studi di Napoli ‘‘Federico II’’, Naples, Italy e-mail: riccardo.vigano@unina.it 123 J Manag Gov (2011) 15:5–28 DOI 10.1007/s10997-009-9122-9