Executive Team Research Articles

Impact of Diversity of Executive Team Career Experience and Cooperation Openness on Breakthrough Innovation Performance

In the era of rapid technological iteration in the digital economy, breakthrough innovation is the main source of core competitive advantage for enterprises. Based on Upper Echelons theory and Resource-based theory, using A-share listed companies in the computer, communication, and other electronic equipment manufacturing industries from 2010 to 2021 as research samples, this study explores the impact of diversity of executive team career experience on breakthrough innovation performance, and examines the mediating effect of cooperation openness and the moderating effect of absorptive capacity. The results indicate that the diversity of career experience in executive teams not only has a significant positive impact on breakthrough innovation performance, but also has a significant positive impact on cooperation openness; The cooperation openness has a significant positive impact on breakthrough innovation performance, and plays a partial mediating role between the diversity of career experience of executive teams and breakthrough innovation performance. The absorptive capacity positively regulates the relationship between cooperation openness and breakthrough innovation performance. This study provides a theoretical reference for enterprises to improve breakthrough innovation performance from the perspective of executive experience.

Working with private hospital midwives in Victoria, Australia to identify practice change priorities: Outcomes of a Delphi study

Objective/aimIn this study, we invited midwives working at one metropolitan private hospital in Victoria, Australia to identify their workplace change needs and priorities for research. MethodsIn this two-round Delphi study, all midwifery staff within the maternity unit of a private hospital in Melbourne, Australia were invited to participate. In round one, participants joined face-to-face focus groups to put forward their ideas for workplace change and research ideas, and these data were developed into themes. In round two, participants ranked the themes in priority order. FindingsThe top four themes identified by this cohort of midwives were: ‘Ways of working – investigating alternate ways of working to enable greater flexibility and opportunities’; ‘Understanding midwifery – working with the executive team to highlight the nuances of maternity care’; ‘Education – increase in staff in the education team to provide a greater presence and opportunity for education’; and ‘Postnatal specific – review ways of working in postnatal areas’. Key conclusionsA number of priority research and change areas were identified which, if implemented, would strengthen both midwifery practice and midwife retention in this workplace. The findings will be of interest to midwife managers. Further research to evaluate the process and success of implementing the actions identified in this study would be valuable

Research on the masking effect of vertical interlock on ESG greenwashing in the context of sustainable Enterprise development

AbstractBased on impression management and principal‐agent theory, this article considers Chinese A‐share listed companies from 2014 to 2020 to explore whether vertical interlocking promotes the sustainable development of enterprises from the perspective of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) report greenwashing. The results show that vertical interlocking increases ESG report greenwashing and hides negative ESG information; these results remained valid through a series of robustness tests. Mechanism analysis shows that the purpose of ESG report greenwashing by vertically interlocked executives is to hollow out minority shareholders rather than to cover up earnings management to conceal actual ESG information. The vertical interlocking of executives more significantly promotes ESG report greenwashing when the property is state‐owned, has poor internal supervision mechanisms, has a large executive team and has no senior executives with green experience. This study furthers the relevant research on the factors affecting the sustainable development of enterprises and enriches and expands studies of the role of the vertical interlock from the perspective of information concealing, providing a more in‐depth reference for promoting the sustainable development of enterprises.

The impact of female directors on earnings management and the moderating effect of board quality: enabler or deterrent?

Purpose The authors motivate this research on the gender diversity of the board because of the recent increases in the number of women in top executive teams (Francis et al., 2015), which has probably been the result of the adoption of legislation for gender quotas as well as the establishment of corporate governance recommendations for gender diverse boards in several countries. The purpose of this study is to consider the quality of board directors when examining the effect of female directors on earnings management. Design/methodology/approach The analyses follow the system generalized method of moment to address endogeneity concerns (e.g. a board with higher quality is more likely to have female directors on board and vice versa). Besides the lags of the endogenous variables, the authors use the female industry ratio as an additional instrument (Liu et al., 2014), as female directors might be inspired by other female directors according to industrial sectors (measured by the two-digit industry codes), where competitors are likely to follow gender diversity practices of other firms within the same industrial sector. Findings The authors’ findings show a negative and significant association between board gender diversity and earnings management (EM), suggesting that independent female directors are the drivers of such effect. High-quality boards decrease the incidence of EM but hinder the potential involvement from female directors towards reducing EM. The incumbent effect of high-quality boards on female director’s contribution on EM reverses with less powerful CEOs. Originality/value The authors contribute to the extant literature by recognizing that the effectiveness of a female director on decreasing EM is a function of the environment in which decision-making takes place (i.e. board quality/powerful CEOs).

Exploring staff's views on the implementation of intergenerational playgroups in care homes.

Intergenerational playgroups are a formalised way of bringing together older people and young children to 'play and interact'. They can facilitate social interaction and reduce loneliness for older people living in care homes. Although interest in intergenerational playgroups is increasing, there is a lack of research into their implementation. To explore staff's views on the implementation of intergenerational playgroups in care homes for older people. A qualitative method was adopted. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were undertaken with ten members of staff working in four care homes in a range of roles. Participants considered intergenerational playgroups to be low-cost interventions with benefits for residents, children, parents or carers and the community. However, there did not appear to be a standardised format or guidance for implementing and delivering the intervention and participants felt that they received little support from colleagues or from executive leadership teams. To support the effective implementation and the sustainability of intergenerational playgroups in care homes, there is a need to educate care home staff about their benefits and to develop guidance and national policies.

Key forces compelling the monitoring of hospital performance: An exploratory study

AbstractPerformance management in the public sector is both multifaceted and convoluted. This is particularly pertinent in hospitals, which are complex institutional organizations. Our paper explores the key drivers compelling Irish public acute‐care hospitals to monitor their performance. The context of our study is located against the unique historical backdrop of the Irish health service, whose evolution over time reflects religious control, underfunding by the State and reliance on a decentralized structure up until the early 2000s. This study was conducted during 2009–2010, in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008–2009. Interviews were conducted with members of the hospital executive management team, comprising clinical and nonclinical senior managers, using the framework of Kelly et al. (2015) to explore and analyze respondent perspectives. We propose that a combination of key forces, emanating from new public management, the institutional environment, and its constituent elements spurs hospitals to monitor their performance. The confluence of these forces reveals a perceived change in the institutional logic underpinning hospital performance management. This change involved the substitution of autonomous clinical decision‐making for a more team‐based managerial logic whereby clinicians engaged as part of a multidisciplinary executive unit and accepted responsibility for hospital performance. This paper contributes to the literature on performance management in public services and, more specifically, builds on and addresses the paucity of research on Irish acute‐care hospitals.

Change in company leadership, subordinate executive team restructuring, and investment efficiency

AbstractUnder the Chinese corporate governance model, the change of “leader” is one of the most significant occurrences for a company, and there is a strong relationship between “leaders”(chairman and CEO) and the executive team under them. Using data from listed A‐share businesses in China from 2007 to 2018, this study evaluates the effects of leaders' changes on investment efficiency and the effects of subordinate executive team restructuring caused by “leadership” change on investment efficiency. The findings reveal that the change of “leaders” significantly reduces company's investment efficiency, and the greater the degree of restructuring of subordinate executives caused by the change of “leaders”, the greater the negative impact on the company's investment efficiency. Nevertheless, the successor leader with a financial background can well mitigate the negative impact of the subordinate executive team restructuring on investment efficiency. In further analysis, we discover that the subordinate executive reorganization results in both overinvestment and underinvestment. However, state‐owned enterprises are more resilient to the damaging impacts of organizational shocks. Additionally, a good internal and external regulatory mechanism can mitigate the negative impact of the subordinate executive teams restructuring on investment efficiency. In conclusion, this study provides scientific support for improving executive team management and optimizing investment decisions for companies.

Effect of Regional Cultural Diversity in Senior Executives on Environmental Protection Investment

With the increase in the seriousness of environmental issues and investors’ increasing concern for corporate environmental performance, more and more scholars are paying attention to the impact of executive diversification on corporate investment decisions. This study empirically examines the impact of regional cultural diversity in executive teams on corporate environmental investment and its moderating effect on different industries and regions, using companies listed in China from 2009 to 2019 as research samples, from the perspective of informal cultural systems. The research results indicate that: regional cultural diversity in executive teams can significantly promote corporate environmental investment; regional cultural diversity in executives is more conducive to increasing environmental investment in competitive industries, while the promotion effect of environmental protection investment in monopolistic industries is not significant; and diversity in regional culture in top management teams is more conducive to the promotion of environmental investment by coastal enterprises, while the promotion of environmental investment by non-coastal enterprises is not significant.

The Impact of Women’s Empowerment on the Corporate Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Disclosure

This research article examines the relationship between women’s empowerment and corporate ESG disclosure variables by analyzing 10,121 publicly traded companies listed worldwide with historical ESG data available in Bloomberg from 2016 to 2020. The paper seeks to answer whether corporate gender diversity directly affects companies’ ESG disclosure by using proprietary Bloomberg ESG disclosure scores and independent variables such as the female board and executive representation. Control variables, like the company’s return on equity, total debt ratio, and the natural logarithm of total assets as a proxy measurement of the firm’s size, are also included. Results provide evidence that policies that foster corporate gender diversity directly benefit from enhanced ESG-related disclosure, thus helping to trigger national dialogues about suitable corporate gender diversity strategies influencing firms’ ESG disclosure. This paper makes a unique contribution to the literature by being the first to analyze the effects of women’s empowerment on ESG disclosure using a globally representative sample. The evidence of the benefits of women’s empowerment associated with corporate ESG disclosure suggests that organizations with a more gender-diverse corporate board and executive team are more likely to have higher levels of ESG disclosure, as gender diversity increases the likelihood of organizational transparency and accountability, and can lead to improved corporate value. Governments should use this evidence to implement policies promoting women’s empowerment in the corporate world, ultimately leading to improved corporate ESG disclosure.

Effect of Executive Compensation on Financial Performance of Listed Non-Financial Firms in Nigeria

Purpose: Examine the effect of executive compensation on the financial performance of listed non-financial firms in Nigeria. Theoretical framework: The continuous rise in compensation of executives in Nigeria without a corresponding increase in firm performance has continued to generate intense debates and controversial opinions within the corporate environment. Consequently, the need to understand the degree of relationship between executive compensation (measured by salary emolument, bonuses, stock-based compensation and pension) and firm performance (measured by return on equity). Design/methodology/approach: A correlational research design was used based on a filtered census population of 63 firms listed on Nigeria’s stock exchange. Secondary data was obtained from the annual financial reports of these firms and analyzed using the generalized methods moments. Findings: The study found salary emoluments, bonuses and stock-based compensation, as measures of executive compensation, have negative impact on the return on equity of listed non-financial firms in Nigeria. Where executive pension claims a positive impact on the return on equity of listed non-financial firms in Nigeria. Research, Practical & Social implications: Regardless of executive compensation being an incentivizing tool for the executive team, which has a significant impact on company strategy, decision-making, and value creation as well as enhancing executive retention, different components of executive compensation exert different effect on the financial performance of firms as confirmed by this research. Originality/value: The research points out different executive compensation measures have different impacts on performance. Consequently, the need for stakeholders to determine the perfect combination of the compensation measures that best drive performance.

Revisiting Enron twenty years later: Eight executive blind spots worth remembering

It has now been over twenty years since the downfall of the corporate giant, Enron. Yet, researchers continue to ponder the leadership decisions carried out by its executive leadership. How is it that a company poised to become the new benchmark in global business could seemingly implode overnight? How could the executive leadership model strength without weakness, only to be shrouded by blind spots that ensured their ultimate doom and failure? In response, Enron’s downfall was not due to a lack of intelligence or technical acumen. The executive leadership possessed the experience and connections to grow a multi-national organization. The organization had positive inertia and public support. Yet, Enron remains one of the greatest examples of corporate failure and scandal. In this article, I will argue that Enron’s downfall was the result of a series of eight negative cultural artifacts sown deeply into the fabric of the organization by its leadership, resulting in internal chaos and almost total corporate communications failure. I will then provide a best-practice research response to each artifact as to how the leadership at Enron could have saved the organization and achieved its global vision. While culture is not everything in an organization, I believe it shapes the heart. If an executive leadership team gets the culture right, ensuring that employees align their actions with the corporate vision, I believe that profit margins will take care of themselves. While Enron’s fate is sealed, its mistakes continue to offer leadership wisdom by foresight, rather than hindsight.

HETEROGENEITY OF TOP MANAGEMENT TEAM RELATIONSHIP, CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND CORPORATE PERFORMANCE

Based on the perspective of corporate social responsibility, this paper builds an index of executive-team relationship heterogeneity based on four dimensions of academic, financial, market and foreign background relationships, and systematically explores the objective results, advocacy paths and value effects of executive-team relationship heterogeneity on corporate performance in the context of social relationships in China. The results show that the higher the heterogeneity of executive-team relationships is, the more negative the impact on corporate performance will be. As for the path of influence, a mediating effect test is used to verify that executive-team relationship heterogeneity can affect corporate performance by influencing the level of CSR performance. This paper expands the literature on factors influencing corporate performance at the micro level of the context of executive team relationships, which is an important guideline for improving the structure and mechanism for selecting managers in listed companies, further regulating the corporate governance system, and enhancing corporate value.

Mass Hospital Evacuation During COVID-19 Pandemic: Experience of Hospital Cluster Infection in Taiwan

Introduction:A mass hospital evacuation occurred in Taiwan in 2021 due to the clustered COVID-19 infection in Hospitals. To maintain essential services with limited manpower, 74 patients are triaged and evacuated to 12 hospitals in 6 cities in 16 hrs for further treatment.Method:All patients were evaluated by physicians for discharge. The patients who still needed hospitalization were classified into three groups according to the risk of infection1. The high-risk group of patients were cared for by infected staff directly; the moderate-risk group were patients admitted to the same ward but didn’t receive care from infected staff. The low-risk group were patients avoiding infection outbreak. Only the low-risk group patients were transferred, excluding patients with unstable vital signs, hospice, and prison. Command Center of HICS of TGH set up a transfer execution team to handle this task.Results:There were 74 patients transferred, including 56 from internal medicine and 18 from the surgery ward. Most of the transfers are concentrated within 16 hours. These patients were transferred to 12 emergency hospitals in 6 cities. The average transport time was 1.5 hours and the longest was about 3 hours due to the distance and traffic.The 17 private ambulances and 11 Fire Department ambulances were dispatched and transferred 60 patients. In addition, there were 14 patients evacuated by small buses. No mortality or COVID-19 infection had been reported within 3 days after this mass evacuation, only one patient had been intubated after one hour of arrival to hospital due to condition deterioration.Conclusion:A hospital evacuation is a complicated process, especially during a pandemic. All infection control measures create difficulties in the patient transfer process. Well-prepared evacuation plans, regular drills, well-trained personnel, an organized command system, and regional cooperation are the keys to mass evacuation in a disaster.

Readiness and Challenges of Indonesian Health Higher Education Independent Accreditation Institutions

This research is intended to examine the readiness and challenges faced by the Indonesian Health Higher Education Independent Accreditation Institute (LAM-PTKes) as an independent accreditation institution with authority to carry out the accreditation of study programs in the science and health professions fields in Indonesia. Based on the case study method, LAM-PTKes generally has the infrastructure and resources to carry out its role as LAM which has the authority to accredit these study programs. The research results show that this institution still has two types of challenges. First, internal challenges include inadequate study program accreditation teams who can understand the technical aspects of accreditation and a need for more supporting IT staff who can help with the accreditation system of these study programs. Second, external challenges, namely the lack of understanding from field study program managers regarding the stages, processes, and documents needed in accreditation and the management system for accreditation supporting documents in general, still need to be better integrated. Despite these challenges, this institution strives to become an influential accreditation body in the national and global arena. To achieve this, this institution needs effective, adaptive and resilient accreditation management and an executive leadership team to manage accreditation issues developing in the digital era.

The corporate executive leadership team and its diversity: impact on innovativeness and sustainability of the bioeconomy

Senior executives have a major role in leading corporations both strategically and operationally. In large corporations, the executive team is leading through their respective organizations, ensuring that corporate strategy is executed efficiently and effectively. In addition, executive management plays the key role in shaping the culture and the values of the corporation. There exists a wealth of research conducted on executive management team dynamics and the success factors related to their performance. This study examines how diversity in executive management impacts the perceived innovativeness of companies. We compare the most innovative companies and the largest players in the bioeconomy. Currently, the bioeconomy has received a lot of attention as it is considered one of the industries associated with solving global societal and environmental challenges. However, it is not perceived as highly innovative and is considered to be lacking in diversity among senior executive teams. This study adds to the body of knowledge connecting innovation, diversity, and corporate leadership and highlights similarities and differences from diversity perspective related to the companies investigated.

Chesapeake Regional Healthcare: Support from the Top for Impactful Relationships.

When governing boards of healthcare organizations resolve to support their executive teams' commitments of time and money to create strategic action plans that meet their communities' environmental and social criteria-and when those healthcare organizations work with others that share their passion to measurably improve health-their communities can realize remarkable benefits. For example, this case study describes Chesapeake Regional Healthcare's collaborative approach to a community health need that began with data from the hospital's emergency department. The approach included the development of intentional relationships with local health departments and nonprofits. The possibilities of such evidence-based collaborations are endless, but the support of a solid organizational structure is required as data collection identifies additional needs.

Anzalone Prime: An Interview with Prime Editing Developer Andrew Anzalone

Anzalone Prime: An Interview with Prime Editing Developer Andrew Anzalone

Top Management Team Heterogeneity and the Performance of Cross-Border M&A

In this paper, we aim to investigate the impact of the top management team (TMT) on the performance of cross-border M&A, using a sample of 270 cross-border M&A events of Chinese listed companies. We find that the heterogeneity of TMT characteristics could affect the performance of cross-border M&A in different ways. More specifically, a higher heterogeneity in gender can improve the M&A performance significantly, while more heterogeneities in tenure and overseas background lead to a significant reduction in long-term and short-term M&A performances, respectively. We believe that our study can contribute to a different perspective for the selection of the executive teams of M&A companies. This, in turn, is conducive to optimizing the structure of the senior management team, and may help companies make better decisions and improve their performance.

DISPUTE SETTLEMENT BETWEEN THE ACTIVITY EXECUTION TEAM AND THE GOODS PROVIDER REGARDING THE USE OF VILLAGE FUNDS

According to Law Number 6 of 2014 concerning Villages, villages have a strategic and vital role in development which is carried out using the development budget in the form of Village Fund Allocation (ADD). Villages can self-manage the use of village funds by procuring goods and services.
 Procurement of goods or services using village funds often experiences problems because the providers do not hand over the product to the activity execution team. This situation happens even though the provider has received a down payment for purchasing goods the village needs. As a result, development in the village is constrained. This condition gave rise to disputes between the activity execution team and the appointed goods or service provider, which may be reported to the authority. Disputes between the activity execution team and the provider in procuring goods and services using village funds are settled through administrative and civil law because the act is a default. The settlement is carried out through discussions to achieve consensus. If it fails, the settlement is carried out through discussions led by the village head. If it fails again, the procurement contract resolution service will conduct the settlement. The final way of settlement is by filing a lawsuit in court, not through criminal law.

The Metabolic Matrix: Re-engineering ultraprocessed foods to feed the gut, protect the liver, and support the brain.

Ultraprocessed food is established as a metabolic disruptor acting to increase adiposity, reduce mitochondrial efficiency, drive insulin resistance, alter growth, and contribute to human morbidity and mortality. Consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies are beginning to understand the detrimental impact of the food they market, and have employed substitution strategies to reduce salt, sugar, and fat. However, the harms of ultraprocessed foods are far more complex than any single component, and are not ameliorated by such simple substitutions. Over the past 2 years, the authors have worked with the Kuwaiti Danish Dairy Company (KDD) to conduct a comprehensive scientific evaluation of their entire commercial food and beverage portfolio. Assay of the macronutrients, micronutrients, additives, and toxins contained in each of their products was undertaken to determine the precise nature of each product's ingredients as well as the health impacts of processing. The authors formed a Scientific Advisory Team (SAT) and developed a tiered "Metabolic Matrix" founded in three science-based principles: (1) protect the liver, (2) feed the gut, and (3) support the brain. The Metabolic Matrix categorizes each product and provides the criteria, metrics, and recommendations for improvement or reformulation. Real-time consultation with the KDD Executive and Operations teams was vital to see these procedures through to fruition. This scientific exercise has enabled KDD to lay the groundwork for improving the health, well-being, and sustainability of their entire product line, while maintaining flavor, economic, and fiscal viability. This process is easily transferrable, and we are sharing this effort and its approaches as a proof-of-concept. The key aim of our work is to not only make ultraprocessed food healthier but to urge other food companies to implement similar analysis and reformulation of their product lines to improve the metabolic health and well-being of consumers worldwide.