"Who's the Boss at the Top? a Micro-Level Analysis of Director Expertise, Status, and Conformity (WITHDRAWN)"

In this paper we address how director expertise impacts a director’s social status within the board. Our results, derived from a unique multi-source datasets of peer ratings on director status of non-executive directors from Dutch organizations, indicate that industry-specific expertise and financial expertise differently impact directors’ social status within the board. We find that directors’ performance orientation - the motivation to demonstrate expertise - may act as an important contingency for expertise to increase directors’ status within the board. Contrary to our expectations, however, industry-specific expertise does not necessarily increase a director's status within the board. Our findings extend existing research on boards of directors and provide unique insights into the behavioral dynamics operating within boards of directors.