Executives Of Firms Research Articles

Industry 4.0 and the circular economy: Resource melioration in logistics

Mining and mineral resources help provide the requirements of everyday life by contributing to essential products and services. In the era of fourth industrial revolution, the trend in logistics is toward a smart logistics system. Therefore, it becomes essential to understand how Industry 4.0 resources influence smart logistics, i.e., instrumented logistics, interconnected logistics, and intelligent logistics. This study investigates how Industry 4.0 resources impact smart logistics and further influence dynamic remanufacturing and green manufacturing capability and, the final effect on business logistics sustainability. Survey data were collected from 150 respondents using an online survey of South African executives in firms operating mines, quarries, and processing plants. Partial Least Squares based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the hypotheses. The findings indicate that Industry 4.0 resources have a strong effect on intelligent logistics compared to its impact on interconnected logistics and instrumented logistics. The impact of intelligent logistics is found to be very high compared to that of interconnected logistics and instrumented logistics on dynamic remanufacturing and green manufacturing capability. Finally, dynamic remanufacturing and green manufacturing capability are found to have a positive influence business logistics sustainability.

Constitutionality of the Financial Liability of Firm Executives and Publication of Their Names on Infringement Decisions

Constitutionality of the Financial Liability of Firm Executives and Publication of Their Names on Infringement Decisions

Grand corruption scandals in the Philippines

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to analyse the weaknesses of governance institutions in constraining grand corruption arising from the government procurement of large foreign-funded infrastructure projects in the Philippines. The weaknesses are revealed in the description and analysis of two major scandals, namely, the construction of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant during the Marcos era and the National Broadband Network project of the Arroyo presidency.Design/methodology/approachThis research employs a historical and comparative case approach to explore patterns of grand corruption and their resolution. Primary and secondary data sources including court decisions, congressional records, journal articles and newspaper reports are used to construct the narratives for each case.FindingsTop-level executive agreements that do not require competitive public bidding provide an opportunity for grand corruption. Such agreements encourage the formation of corrupt rent-seeking relationships involving the selling firm, brokers, politicians and top-level government executives. Closure of cases of grand corruption is a serious problem that involves an incoherent and politically vulnerable prosecutorial and justice system.Originality/valueThis paper aims to contribute to research on grand corruption involving the executive branch in the Philippines, particularly in the procurement of large, foreign-funded government projects. It examines allegations of improprieties in government project contracting and the politics of resolving corruption scandals through the justice system.

Bridging the gap between management and finance: entrepreneurial orientation and idiosyncratic risk

PurposeManagement theorists suggest that entrepreneurially oriented firms manifest higher risk levels than more conservative companies, but executives of such firms and their consultants argue that the opposite is true. The purpose of this paper is to explore this issue and examine the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and idiosyncratic risk of firms.Design/methodology/approachContent analysis is applied to the 2018 third-quarter earnings call transcripts for 992 companies to measure five factors attributed to entrepreneurially oriented firms: autonomy, competitive aggressiveness, innovation, proactiveness and risk-taking, and their relationship to firm-level idiosyncratic risk. Multivariate regression analysis is used to examine the effect of these factors on measures of idiosyncratic risk obtained from the Wharton Research database Service's Beta Suite.FindingsResults show that firms whose executives frequently use terms related to risk-taking tend to manifest higher levels of idiosyncratic risk, but those firms whose executives stress innovation-related terms tend to have lower levels of idiosyncratic risk. The degree to which executives use words related to the three other entrepreneurial orientation factors show no associations with idiosyncratic risk.Practical implicationsThe results might suggest to managers which of the individual components of entrepreneurial orientation, if adopted, are likely to affect firm-specific risk and in what way.Originality/valueThis paper is the first to attempt to bridge the gap between the management concept of entrepreneurial orientation and the financial concept of idiosyncratic risk by studying the possible relationship between the two. The research also uses the novel methodology of applying content analysis to earnings call transcripts, which is uncommon in finance research.

Gender and Earnings Conference Calls

Using a large sample of quarterly earnings conference call transcripts, we investigate gender issues in interactions between two high-profile professions—sell-side analysts and public firm executives. We find that women are generally less “visible” on conference calls. Specifically, female analysts have fewer conference call participation opportunities. Conditional on participation, female analysts are allowed fewer opportunities to ask follow-up questions and speak less compared with male counterparts. Female analysts speak with more positive tone, less uncertainty, less numerical content, fewer speech hesitations, and fewer back and forth conversations with firm management. Female executives have shorter discourses and receive more rounds of questions from analysts. However, female executives exhibit more certainty and hesitate less, indicating superior abilities in answering analysts’ questions. Our analysis of speech interruptions finds that female analysts are interrupted less by female, but not male, executives. Female executives receive more interruptions from both male analysts and executives and are more likely to be challenged by male subordinates. The equity market also discounts female analysts’ participation. Overall, our results are consistent with gender-based discrimination.

Tax Knowledge Diffusion Through Individual Auditor Network Ties: Evidence from China

This study investigates whether network ties via sharing the same individual auditor influences the diffusion of tax avoidance knowledge. We find that firms with greater connection to low-tax firms through audit partners have lower effective tax rates (ETRs), consistent with tax avoidance knowledge being shared among firms through individual auditor network. The influence of audit network ties on tax avoidance at focal firms is stronger when partners’ tenure in low-tax firms is longer, and when partners have social connection with the top executives of focal firms. In addition, audit fees of focal firms with auditor network ties to low-tax firms are significantly higher if their executives are not socially connected to partners, suggesting that audit partners benefit from sharing the tax avoidance knowledge with clients without social ties.

Conceptualizing big data practices

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual understanding of Big Data practices in organizations, which will enable exploring the operational and strategic roles of Big Data in organizational performance.Design/methodology/approachBoth academic and non-academic literature studies on Big Data were reviewed so as to capture what was known about Big Data practices. Qualitative interviews were conducted with firm executives about Big Data practices in their organizations. Both literature review and interview results were analyzed based on the dynamic capabilities perspective.FindingsThe analysis of the results suggests that Big Data capability develops when the resources parts of Big Data and the skill and competency parts are integrated and then grow into a dynamic capability.Research limitations/implicationsThis study contributes to the literature with the concept of Big Data capability that best characterizes Big Data practices in organizations. Validity of this concept should be tested in empirical studies.Originality/valueThe development of the concept of Big Data capability helps to fill a gap in the research literature that theoretical understanding of big data practices is lacking or needs to be updated. It motivates practitioners to develop this capability so as to create and maintain their strategic advantage.

Corporate social performance aspiration and its effects

In recent years, amid various social and environmental problems, companies have been urged to engage more extensively in corporate social responsibility activities, particularly in stakeholder-oriented countries. Previous studies have made inconsistent findings about how firms respond to feedback about their social performance. Drawing on insights from the behavioral theory of the firm, we propose that in stakeholder-oriented countries such as Japan, firm executives are likely to set corporate social performance aspirations by comparing their own corporate social performance with that of their industry peers, and these aspirations in turn drive different corporate social responsibility behaviors. Employing a sample of Japanese listed firms, we find a U-shaped relationship between negative attainment discrepancy in corporate philanthropic performance aspiration and corporate philanthropic expenditure, but no relationship between negative attainment discrepancy in corporate environmental performance aspiration and corporate environmental expenditure. We also find a linear relationship between positive attainment discrepancy in corporate philanthropic/environmental performance aspiration and corporate philanthropic/environmental expenditure. Our empirical results further show that the above effects would change depending on whether or not the firm attains its financial performance aspirations. Our study contributes to the literatures of corporate social responsibility and organizational aspiration.

Exploring Identity-Based Crime Victimizations: Assessing Threats and Victim Services among a Sample of Professionals

ABSTRACT An estimated 26 million American citizens per year have been victims of an identity-based crime. This study contributes to the scholarship on identity-based crime by examining serious identity-based crime victimization and the services available to help victims. This study investigated the interaction between victimized individuals and organizations and explored unmet needs for victim services. Interviews from focus groups with fifty professionals (e.g., private investigators, fraud examiners, victim service providers, and executives of firms offering victim services and protection services) working in identity-based crime victim services were used. The current study addressed two questions: 1) How do experts in the field of identity-based crime define the victims of identity theft and fraud and 2) How can the services for victims of identity-based crime be improved or expanded? Results show that professionals have a three-victim model of identity-based crime victimization, are greatly concerned about the rise in synthetic identity crime, and that identity-based crime victimization is present in a greater percentage of the population than most national estimates.

Validating scales for economic upgrading in global value chains and assessing the impact of upgrading on supplier firms’ performance

Economic upgrading in global value chains is critical for developing economies, as upgrading enhances supplier firms’ performance, employment and economic growth. However, to date there is no valid measure of firm-level upgrading, making it hard to systematically measure and address deficiencies within firms to enhance firms’ performance and national economic development. This paper addresses this gap by developing and validating measures of four types of economic upgrading using data from senior executives (n = 350) in Bangladeshi apparel supplier firms. The resulting measures have reliability, convergent and discriminant validity as well as nomological validity. The findings of the assessment of nomological validity suggest that suppliers’ manufacturing capability is critical to all four types of upgrading. The four types of upgrading, however, have differing impacts on supplier firms’ production and export performance. Suggestions as to how these measures can be used in practice, policy and research to better understand and manage firm-level upgrading are provided.

Leader behaviours of family and non-family executives in family firms

PurposeSeveral studies of family firm failures have pointed to non-family members in leading positions as a reason. However, non-family members have often played a key role in family-firm longevity, while non-family executives’ involvement in family firms is increasing. These non-family executives who (co-)run family firms are thought to require an almost impossible set of behavioural qualities. The aim of this exploratory study is to find out how specific leader behaviours of effective family executives and non-family executives may differ.Design/methodology/approachBased on Dulewicz and Higgs’ (2005) broad leadership frame, the authors draw attention to a large range of behaviours of family-firm executives. In-depth interviews were conducted with successful German executives, both family and non-family ones. Their answers had to contain specific behavioural examples.FindingsMore behavioural similarities than differences are shown between family- and non-family-based executives. Yet, the self-reflective communicative behavioural qualities of the non-family executives could balance a lack of such qualities among the family-based executives. Based on the three major differences – decision-making style, communication versatility and self-awareness – specific new research propositions are distilled about effective family firm leadership.Originality/valuePractical suggestions for recruiting non-family executives are offered. Future quantitative longitudinal research on how to pair specific behavioural qualities of family and non-family based executives that optimise family-firm longevity is urgently needed.

Institutional environment and determinants of adjustment speed to the target capital structure in the MENA region

We investigate financial structure institutional determinants of firms listed on the MENA region, and we analyze the indirect role played by institutions on the speed of adjustment. We consider a sample of 506 non-financial firms from 12 MENA countries listed on the stock exchange between 2006 and 2014. We find that the effects of firm profitability, non-debt tax savings and growth opportunities on leverage are strengthened in the context of good quality institutions. In the contrast, the effects of firm size and returns volatility are reduced. Regarding the adjustment speed, we find that the financial market development and the good quality of institutions tend to reinforce the effects of firm profitability and distance from the target. However, they moderate the influence of firm returns volatility, growth opportunities, non-debt tax savings, and asset tangibility on the adjustment process. We also note that political stability plays an indirect role to control bankruptcy costs and information asymmetries. Our results have important implications since they can interest firm executives and investors in MENA countries, and more generally in developing countries. They may provide answers to questions about the role played by institutions in the adjusting process to the target debt ratio.

Pandemic-Era Uncertainty on Main Street and Wall Street

We draw on the monthly Survey of Business Uncertainty (SBU) to make three observations about pandemic-era uncertainty in the U.S. economy. First, equity market traders and executives of nonfinancial firms share similar assessments about uncertainty at one-year lookahead horizons. That is, the one-year VIX has moved similarly to our survey-based measure of (average) firm-level subjective uncertainty at one-year forecast horizons. Second, looking within the distribution of beliefs in the SBU reveals that firm-level expectations shifted towards upside risk in the latter part of 2020. In this sense, decision makers in nonfinancial businesses share some of the optimism that seems manifest in equity markets. Third, and despite the positive shift in tail risks, overall uncertainty continues to substantially dampen capital spending plans, pointing to a source of weak growth in demand and in potential gross domestic product.

Corporate social responsibility reporting and stakeholder management in an emerging market: Perspective of CSR executives

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting and stakeholder management practices are influenced by contextual issues (Abreu, Castro, Soares, & Filho, 2012; Tilt, 2016). This current study examines the CSR reporting and stakeholder management practices, focusing on the perspective of CSR executives in the context of a developing country. A qualitative methodological approach was used for the study, where CSR executives of firms on the Ghana Club 100 (GC 100) from 2010-2012 were interviewed. Information published in annual reports and websites of firms were also analysed. Findings show annual reports are the popular channels for CSR reporting. However, some multinational firms used both annual reports and standalone CSR reports because it is mandatory. The study established that CSR reports are used in correcting negative perceptions and stakeholder scepticism. However, the expected positive interplay between CSR reporting and stakeholder management does not hold for all groups of stakeholders. There is also very little information on the existence of mechanisms that promote the implementation of stakeholder management policies at the firm-level

Barriers hindering the entry of new firms to the competitive market and profitability of incumbents

Recently, entering new firms into a competitive market is getting harder due to different industry barriers. Addressing this concern, the aim of this paper is to measure the relationship between industry barriers that prevent the entry of new rivals and increase the profitability of incumbent firms. The study was based on the data of one hundred and seven executives of firms that operate in the Republic of Kosovo, and it attempts to assert and order the market entry barriers. The responses were collected by questionnaires and the econometric model was constructed, to test this relationship. The findings were obtained using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and multivariate regression. Econometric results indicated that seven dimensions of industry barriers have a direct and positive impact on the profitability of incumbents and serve as barriers for new firms to enter the market, and showed that business executives in Kosovo perceive capital requirements of non-incumbents as the most important entry barrier, whereas access to distribution channels as the least important. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed and explained.

Homophily Exclusion or Homophily Preference? The Influence of the Executive Identity of Nonexecutive Directors on the Focal Firm Executive Pay and Ordinary Employee Pay

Abstract The occupational identity of nonexecutive directors exerts a considerable influence on their way of designing and distributing executive pay as well as ordinary employee pay in the focal firm. Integrating the status characteristics theory into the corporate governance literature, I theorize that status contest effect comes into play in the process of setting executive pay in the focal firm, specifically when its nonexecutive directors serve as executives on stakeholders. More often than not, such executive identity triggers the status competition with focal firm executives, which motivates nonexecutive directors to reduce the focal firm executive pay so as to secure and aggrandize their own status within the focal firm. However, since ordinary employees pose no threat to nonexecutive directors in the focal firm, they tend to increase ordinary employee pay. Basing upon the empirical test which adopts the data of China’s Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed firms, I find that the greater the focal firm’s nonexecutive director ratio, the less will be the top executives’ pay in the focal firm; the greater the focal firm’s nonexecutive director ratio, the greater will be ordinary employees’ pay in the focal firm; the greater the focal firm’s nonexecutive director ratio, the smaller will be the pay gap between top executives and ordinary employees in the focal firm. In addition, I also find that ownership power and gender can moderate the relationship between nonexecutive director ratio and executive pay: top executive ownership can alleviate the negative relationship between focal firm’s nonexecutive directors and top executives’ pay; female nonexecutive directors are more likely to increase focal firm’s ordinary employee pay than their male counterparts.

Capturing heterogeneities in orchestrating resources for accurately forecasting high (separately low) project management performance

Applying complexity theory tenets, the study here contributes an asymmetric modeling perspective for examining resources orchestrations that indicate high (separately low) project management performance (PMP) accurately. Complexity theory tenets include recognizing that the causal conditions resulting in high PMP have different conditions (i.e., ingredients) typically than the causal conditions resulting in low PMP—adopting this perspective supports the usefulness of asymmetric point or interval estimation rather than the currently pervasive symmetric approach to theory construction and empirical modeling of variable directional relationships (VDR). This study constructs a general model and specific configurational propositions that include social capital, processes, and knowledge management effectiveness as causal conditions indicating case outcomes of high and separately low PMP. Using survey data, the study includes examining propositions and models empirically on the causal conditions for completed projects (n = 302, USA sample of executives in product and service industrial firms). The findings support the perspective that high (as well as low) PMP depends on resource orchestration (configurational) antecedent conditions. The findings serve to support the general proposition that applications of complexity theory in project management research respond effectively in building in the requisite variety for deep understanding and accurate forecasting of performance outcomes. This study includes contributions to theory and empirical research that support the perspective that separate sets of resource orchestrations of alternative complex antecedents (rather than a VDR, symmetric, net effects perspective) forecast high (low) project management performances accurately.

Executive compensation and firm performance: Evidence from cross‐listed AH‐share firms

AbstractWe apply sensitivity of executive compensation to firm performance as an effective measurement of corporate governance to examine the bonding mechanism among the cross‐listed Chinese firms between 2005 and 2017. Our sample covers the nonfinancial firms listed on both China and Hong Kong stock exchanges (AH‐share firms) and firms in China only (A‐share firms). We find that AH‐share firms have much higher sensitivity of executive compensation to firm performance than A‐share firms. However, the bonding effect only exists when executive cash compensation and firm accounting performance are considered. Executive compensation on stock return, chief executive officer turnover on firm accounting performance, or chief executive officer turnover on stock market performance, all demonstrate no bonding effect. The results are attributed to institutional environment in which executive compensation is solely dependent on accounting profits among Chinese firms, and the A‐share market offers weak investor protection. We also find that both legal and reputational bonding effects work on improved governance of AH‐share firms, although such effects are highly dependent on specific market mechanisms including that of firm executives. Our findings may contribute to current bonding literature and have policy implications on future state‐owned enterprise reforms.

Corporate Governance and Firm Performance in India: An Empirical Research

The point of the exploration is to look at the relationship among corporate administration and firm execution. In this examination study board information of S&P BSE-100 listed organizations from 2011-2018 and LSDV board information model, 2SLS model are utilized as instruments for investigation of the information. Where Market to Book worth and Tobin Q are taken as the needy variable while size of the board, freedom with the board; compensation given for the board, advertiser shareholding are considered as autonomous factors. The result of the examination uncovers that great corporate administration practices actualized by organizations are decidedly identified with money related execution. The finding of the examination uncovers that littler sheets are probably going to be progressively proficient in observing execution (Fuerst and Kang 2000; Loderer and Peyer 2002). The present examination affirms that there is a negative relationship among board freedom and execution of the firm and higher level of outside executives negatively affect firm execution (Yermack, 1996; Klein, 1998).

Corporate Governance and Non-financial Performance of Medium-sized Firms in Nigeria: A CB-SEM Approach

This study investigates the perceptions of firm executives with respect to the extent of the influence of corporate governance (CG) practices on the non-financial performance (NFP) of medium-sized firms in Nigeria. The theoretical support for the research is from the stakeholder and agency theories. The cross-sectional survey and the cluster and stratified probability proportionate sampling methods are adopted, while the data collection is through a structured questionnaire that covers four CG indicators of board size, director’s qualification, ownership structure and board audit committee. The co-variance-based structural equation modelling (CB-SEM) technique ensures the analysis of the data collected. The result indicates that CG has significant positive effect on firms’ NFP. This outcome supports the urgent need for the development and execution of CG code of ethics for the non-listed firms alongside a regulatory agency for ensuring monitoring and compliance. The drawbacks are inclusive of the measure of variables on linear relationship basis and non-adoption of the longitudinal approach for the study. Future studies need to look at the usage of the intervening variables which, can further aid in evaluating the relationships of the research variables and their indirect and total effects.