When small firms join networks and coordinate their R&D activities, they delegate certain governance responsibilities to the network boards. We use five-year longitudinal data on over 50 strategic small-firm networks to investigate how these boards should be organized to help improve innovative status of the network participants. Controlling for the factors identified by previous research as important determinants of board effectiveness, we explore the effect of network board continuity (rates of renewal) on innovative performance. We argue that the relationship is curvilinear (U-shaped) and demonstrate that it is more pronounced in larger networks. Overall, the study concludes that network board composition is important for network innovative performance and that ensuring proper board dynamics is a key element of composing effective boards.