Military Background Research Articles

Can military-experienced CEOs improve corporate outcomes?

Purpose This paper aims to assess the role of CEOs with military experience in shaping corporate outcomes in Vietnam and provide new insights into how these unique backgrounds influence corporate financial decisions and firm performance within the specific context of an emerging market. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a comprehensive data set of 323 non-financial firms listed in Vietnam over 2013–2021 to examine the association between military-experienced CEOs and corporate outcomes. The authors apply propensity-score matching analysis to address potential endogeneity issues and use 2SLS estimation to show the mechanisms through which military CEOs affect firm performance. Findings The authors find that firms led by CEOs with military backgrounds outperform their counterparts lacking this experience. Furthermore, the findings indicate that firms helmed by military-experienced CEOs tend to make more investments and maintain lower (higher) short-term (long-term) debt levels. Practical implications This study provides additional evidence on the influence of military CEOs on corporate outcomes, particularly in the context of an emerging market. It underscores the positive effects of skills acquired during military service on veterans’ civilian careers, particularly in business leadership roles. The findings are valuable for managers contemplating the recruitment of veterans, highlighting the potential advantages these individuals can bring to a company. Additionally, the results may inspire younger individuals to consider military training as a means to develop valuable characteristics that can enhance their personal and professional development. Originality/value The authors have observed the notable success in firms led by CEOs with military backgrounds since Vietnam’s renovation period in the 1980s. Yet, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, research on the influence of military-experienced CEOs in Vietnam remains scarce. This study is the first pioneering in shedding light on the diverse contributions of soldiers to the development of the Vietnamese economy.

Military Intervention in Civil Wars: Individual-Level Explanation of Leaders’ Decisions

Why are some national leaders more likely to intervene in a civil war than others? In this paper, I suggest that prior military service and combat experience can influence leaders’ risk perception by altering what they expect the result of their (in)action to be, as well as making militaristic means more mentally accessible, creating a militaristic heuristic for judgments. Analyzing national leaders from 1875 to 2004, I find that 1) leaders who have a military service background are about 3.86 percent more likely to engage in third-party intervention compared to those without; 2) leaders who were deployed in combat are around 4.53 percent more likely to intervene than those who either do not have any military experience at all or have military service experience but were never deployed; and 3) leaders’ military service experience without deployment in combat shows almost no impact especially when the standard error was taken into consideration. By examining how individual leaders’ experiences impact third-party intervention, this study aims to contribute to the agent-structure debate in IR and the debate on political decision-makers and their personal backgrounds.

The role of military directors in holding the CEO accountable for poor firm performance

AbstractResearch SummaryWhy do some boards of directors dismiss the CEO when a firm performs poorly, while others do not? We argue that military directors—outside directors with military backgrounds—on the board increase the likelihood of CEO dismissal under low‐performance conditions. Military service instills a lifelong system of values and beliefs related to accountability—the obligation to accept responsibility for one's own actions and outcomes—which leads military directors to attribute low performance to the CEO and hold the CEO strictly accountable for such performance. This argument is supported by extensive quantitative data on CEO dismissal in publicly listed firms and qualitative data obtained from interviews with military directors who have served on boards of those firms.Managerial SummaryMilitary directors—outside directors with military backgrounds—frequently occupy seats on the boards of publicly listed firms in the United States. Military service instills an enduring system of values and beliefs rooted in accountability, which, we argue, makes military directors more inclined to attribute performance shortfalls to the CEO and advocate for more rigorous CEO accountability, resulting in CEO dismissal. Our argument is supported by quantitative data on CEO dismissals within publicly listed firms and qualitative data derived from interviews with military directors who have served on boards of those firms. Our findings underscore that principles ingrained via military service may influence corporate governance, particularly one of its core components: executive accountability.

The impact of entrepreneurs’ military experience on small business exit: A conservation of resources perspective

Based on insights drawn from the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this paper examines the impact of military experience on small business exit decisions among entrepreneurs. We theorize that entrepreneurs with military backgrounds are more conservative regarding the potential resource loss associated with the entrepreneurial process than those without military experience, making them more likely to exit their business as a coping mechanism. We further theorize that these entrepreneurs are more likely to exit the business voluntarily rather than involuntarily, using business exit as a coping mechanism to preemptively manage risks before the actual losses occur. An empirical analysis of data from the 2007 Survey of Business Owners (SBO 2007) provided by the United States Census Bureau supports our hypotheses. This study contributes to our knowledge of how military service affects entrepreneurs’ decisions regarding business exit.

The Social, Educational, and Early Military Backgrounds of Senior Officers of the British Army of the Second World War, 1944–1945

Abstract Seventy-eight officers held senior command positions at army, corps, and divisional level in Britain’s three main field armies – the Second (North-West Europe), Eighth (Italy), and Fourteenth (Burma) – at the end of the Second World War. Using a range of source material, including their private papers, this article examines their socio-economic and family background, education, and early career development and finds that as a group, they were more representative of the middling classes than heretofore depicted. They were also far more diverse in education and place of birth: twenty-one were born outside Britain. As this article argues, the make-up of the three armies also differed, suggesting the formation of a more elite, home-grown, ‘first team’ for service with the Second Army in North-West Europe.

Gaining consensus on a protocol for general surgery physician assistants in the management of non-compressible abdominal haemorrhage in military austere environments: a Delphi study

BackgroundNon-compressible abdominal haemorrhage (NCAH) is a potentially preventable cause of death due to injury. Limited exploratory laparotomy by a non-surgeon is a temporary intervention to sustain life until definitive surgical...

The impact of top managers’ military experience on enterprises’ ESG performance: Evidence from Chinese listed enterprise

Sustainable development is crucial for enterprises' long-term development and influences broader socio-economic outcomes. The ESG performance is essential for assessing enterprises' sustainable development. Executives, as crucial implementers of corporate strategy, play an indispensable role in the pursuit of sustainable development. However, the impact of executives' military background on enterprise ESG performance remains understudied and lacks consensus in the existing literature. Therefore, this study examines the logical relationship between top managers' military experience and Chinese enterprises' performance concerning environmental protection, social responsibility and corporate governance (ESG) using data from 4543 publicly traded companies between 2010 and 2021. The results demonstrate that top managers' military experience is positively correlated with enterprises' ESG performance. The promotional impact of the baseline regression indicates that the effect is primarily imparted through enterprises' governance, including profit, total revenue and net profit. Heterogeneity tests show that top managers' military experience is a more effective means to promote enterprises’ ESG performance in high research and development investing enterprises, small enterprises, those with female directors and enterprises in central and western China. This study not only enriches the understanding of the economic implications of executive military experience, but also provides theoretical support for enterprises to formulate relevant policies and construct management teams to improve their ESG performance and achieve sustainable development.

Interview with Professor Ram Bahadur Chhetri

Professor Ram Bahadur Chhetri was born in Dehradun, India, on April 4, 1952. He comes from a military and peasant socio-cultural background. After completing his high school education in Nagaland, India, he received his Intermediate and Bachelor's degrees at Prithvi Narayan Campus in Pokhara, Nepal. He was initially enrolled in the Master's in Political Science program at the Central Department of Political Science at Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Nepal. However, circumstances led him to earn an MA in Anthropology from Pune University in Maharashtra, India, in 1980. He eventually earned a PhD from the University of Hawaii, USA, in 1990.

Performance of executive military experience in company ESG

The personal experiences of managers have become an important issue in corporate governance and development in the field of management. Evaluating a company's performance from the aspects of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) has been a popular research topic in recent years. This article empirically examines the impact of managers' military backgrounds on a company's ESG performance based on samples of listed companies from 2006 to 2022. The study found that: (1) Managers with military backgrounds have a positive impact on a company's ESG performance; (2) In companies with high power concentration, the promoting effect of military executives on the company is more significant; (3) In companies with poor operating conditions, the promoting effect of military executives on the company is more pronounced. This study enriches the related research on the relationship between managers' military backgrounds and a company's ESG performance. Expanding the heterogeneity analysis focusing on power concentration and operating conditions, and provides reference for future research in this area.

Military service and health-related quality of life among gay and bisexual prostate cancer survivors: Results from the Restore-2 study

IntroductionThere are notable disparities in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) between gay and bisexual men (GBM) and heterosexual patients with prostate cancer (PCa); however, the role of past military service...

The experiences of visually impaired military veterans with Charles Bonnet syndrome.

Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS) refers to the experience of visual hallucinations occurring secondary to sight loss. Although there is an increasing amount of research on this phenomenon, CBS remains a lesser-known outcome of visual impairment, with limited research into the impact on the patient. To explore the experiences and opinions of visually impaired military veterans with CBS regarding the impact of visual hallucinations. Semi-structured qualitative interviews. Forty-six telephone interviews were conducted with members of Blind Veterans UK, a charity for visually impaired ex-service men and women. One-hundred and fifteen individuals at the charity with CBS were identified and invited to a semi-structured interview (participation rate - 40%). Qualitative data was transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. Four overarching themes were identified: (1) impact of CBS (2) understanding and management of CBS (3) awareness of CBS (4) recommendations. Negative impact of CBS included feelings of fear, annoyance and disruptions to daily life and quality of life. Negative appraisal of CBS was not necessarily related to negative hallucination content. Participants expressed the value of increased awareness amongst patients and health care professionals. Knowledge and understanding of CBS provided reassurance and was considered an effective strategy to mitigate the negative impact of the condition. Regardless of hallucination content, CBS has a substantial impact on the lives of people with visual impairment. Increased awareness and information can help to support individuals to manage their CBS more effectively. However, the findings from this study cannot be generalized to people without a military background so further research is required to understand and optimize support for military veterans and civilians with CBS.

A Case Review on Multiple Myeloma Patients with Military Services and Toxin Exposures

Background: Multiple myeloma (MM) is a bone marrow-based, multifocal plasma cell neoplasm associated with an M-protein in serum and / or urine. Events mediating progression from the pre-malignant monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) to MM are not clearly understand. Numerous genetic events and environmental factors appear to trigger the progression of MM. Although there have been many studies on occupational and toxin exposures as risk factors to the development of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, there are few studies that focus on military service and toxin exposures as potential risk factors to the development and progression of MM. Aims: We present a descriptive analysis of MM occurrences in cohorts of patients with military background who had potential exposure to toxic agents. This is a cohort-based study that uses combination of structured clinical information from electronic health record (EHR) and natural language processing (NLP) of all clinical notes associated with patients. Method: We first identified a cohort of 2329 patients diagnosed with MM. The inclusion in this cohort was ascertained by at least one occurrence of MM diagnosis including MM in remission, plasma cell leukemia in remission, or plasma cell leukemia in relapse in a cohort of 736,707 adult patients (age > 21) with an inpatient, outpatient, telehealth, or home visit between January 2016 to January 2023 in Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, New York. All clinical notes associated with both cohorts were processed using a custom NLP query to identify cohorts of patients with military background (e.g., military service, Veteran, Vietnam war, army or navy or air force deployment). Another custom NLP query was used to identify cohort of patients with recorded history of toxic exposure (e.g., 9/11 world trade center, Agent orange, Mustard gas, Sarin gas, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides). All queries and NLP results were reviewed by the authors to ensure extraction of relevant patients, encounters, and notes. Results: Our study investigates a cohort of approximately 2329 patients admitted to Montefiore Medical Center between 2016 and 2023 with diagnosis of MM. Table 1 summarizes the cohorts of MM patients in compared to the study population (denominator) in the database. Overall we identified sixteen patients with diagnosis of MM and some record of military background (Table 1). We identified eight patients with diagnosis of MM and history of toxin exposure. Among these two groups, six patients with diagnosis of MM were noted with history of military background and toxin exposure (Table 1). We then characterize the demographic information and clinical visits at diagnosis in the myeloma patients with military backgrounds / or toxin exposures (Table 2). Conclusion: Our results demonstrate disproportionately high occurrence of multiple myeloma in patients with recorded history of military exposure to toxic agents when compared to other groups (9% vs 0.1% to 0.4%) and provides a rationale for further investigations.

The Loyal Scholar. Hindūšāh, Naḫjawān and the Juwaynīs

Abstract This article documents intellectual life in Iran under the Mongols through the case of Hindūšāh Naḫjawānī (d. before 728/1327–28), a scholar known primarily as a historian who has gained a certain notoriety thanks to the pioneering works of Edgard Browne and ʿAbbās Iqbāl on his Tajārib al-salaf. New sources allow to rectify a number of approximations and mistakes about his origin, his name, his works, his career and his scholarly interests. The resulting portrait of Hindūšāh illustrates several key features of the scholarly life of medieval Islam in general and of the Ilkhanid period in particular: social mobility (via Hindūšāh’s rise from a Turkish military background to a well-educated scholar), geographical mobility (through his constant travels from his home region of Naḫjawān), linguistic fluidity in his writings (between Persian and Arabic, but without the slightest interest in Turkish), political context (specifically, the increasing “Shiitisation” of the late Ilkhanate), and, last but not least, loyalty to his patrons. Hindūšāh not only enjoyed the protection of the Juwaynī brothers at a time when they wielded tremendous power in the early Ilkhanate state but also remained loyal to their memory decades after their fall in the 680/1280s. It helps explain his disillusioned view of historiographical writing but also his choice of works to copy. Hindūšāh remained an independent scholar, finding solace from distressing historical events in the study of philosophy and the reading of poetry.

Successful Stellate Ganglion Block in Patients with Treatment Resistant Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Case Series and Recent Literature Review

BACKGROUND: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an increasing health concern in both those with and without previous military experience. There is a growing body of evidence for the use of stellate ganglion block (SGB), a procedure performed to treat pain conditions and cardiac arrythmias, in the treatment of PTSD. There have been multiple clinical studies, randomized and nonrandomized, that have demonstrated positive results for the use of SGB. CASE REPORT: In this case series, we present 3 patients with military background and treatment resistant PTSD who underwent SGBs. All 3 patients experienced a decrease in their clinical symptoms and improved quality of life. CONCLUSION: Patients with refractory PTSD may benefit from SGB for treatment of their symptoms. PTSD symptoms may be sympathetically mediated, lending to the effect of SGB for symptom management. Data from recent clinical trials demonstrate a statistically significant reduction in PTSD symptoms when compared to sham procedures. KEY WORDS: Case series, literature review, local anesthetic, post-traumatic stress disorder, randomized control trial, stellate ganglion block, superficial cervical ganglion block, trauma

Armies and Influence: Elite Experience and Public Opinion on Foreign Policy

When is the public more likely to defer to elites on foreign policy? Existing research suggests the public takes its cues from co-partisans, but what happens when co-partisans disagree? We argue that the public defers to elites whose prior experiences signal expertise and favorable intentions. Elites with backgrounds in socially esteemed institutions are thus especially powerful cue-givers, even when the core competencies of those institutions are not directly related to the issue at hand. Using two conjoint experiments, we find that the American public defers to more experienced elites generally, but is especially deferential toward elites with experience in trusted institutions: the public defers more to elites with military backgrounds, even when considering non-military issues. The theory and findings suggest that where elites sat in the past shapes how much power they wield once standing in office.

Candidate Identity and Campaign Priming: Analyzing Voter Support for Pete Buttigieg’s Presidential Run as an Openly Gay Man

Pete Buttigieg’s candidacy in the 2020 Democratic primaries caught fire more than most predicted. An openly gay man, Buttigieg is also a veteran and a Christian. Did voters penalize Buttigieg for being gay and in a same-sex relationship? Did his other traits offset voter negative bias? We conducted a survey with over 6000 likely voters during the primaries. We included a priming experiment that manipulated the salience of Buttigieg’s identity traits. We then asked respondents how much they liked Buttigieg and who they would support in a match-up between Buttigieg and Trump. Overall, voters penalized Buttigieg for being in a same-sex relationship. The penalty surprisingly increased when his religiosity was highlighted. In contrast, Buttigieg’s military background mitigated voter discrimination when he was presented as a veteran married to a man. This article reveals how double standards and heterosexism penalize gay candidates, and contributes to discussions on minority candidates and electability.

Adverse Outcome Following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Is Associated with Microstructure Alterations at the Gray and White Matter Boundary.

The gray matter/white matter (GM/WM) boundary of the brain is vulnerable to shear strain associated with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). It is, however, unknown whether GM/WM microstructure is associated with long-term outcomes following mTBI. The diffusion and structural MRI data of 278 participants between 18 and 65 years of age with and without military background from the Department of Defense INTRuST study were analyzed. Fractional anisotropy (FA) was extracted at the GM/WM boundary across the brain and for each lobe. Additionally, two conventional analytic approaches were used: whole-brain deep WM FA (TBSS) and whole-brain cortical thickness (FreeSurfer). ANCOVAs were applied to assess differences between the mTBI cohort (n = 147) and the comparison cohort (n = 131). Associations between imaging features and post-concussive symptom severity, and functional and cognitive impairment were investigated using partial correlations while controlling for mental health comorbidities that are particularly common among military cohorts and were present in both the mTBI and comparison group. Findings revealed significantly lower whole-brain and lobe-specific GM/WM boundary FA (p < 0.011), and deep WM FA (p = 0.001) in the mTBI cohort. Whole-brain and lobe-specific GM/WM boundary FA was significantly negatively correlated with post-concussive symptoms (p < 0.039), functional (p < 0.016), and cognitive impairment (p < 0.049). Deep WM FA was associated with functional impairment (p = 0.002). Finally, no significant difference was observed in cortical thickness, nor between cortical thickness and outcome (p > 0.05). Findings from this study suggest that microstructural alterations at the GM/WM boundary may be sensitive markers of adverse long-term outcomes following mTBI.

Veterans as Library Employees: Insights and Ideas for Library Administrators

Military veterans are employed in a variety of roles in libraries, from library security to library administration. This article explores how a military background impacts a library employee’s experience working in libraries, including the barriers that veterans encounter as well as the strengths that veterans bring to the library community. This article provides concrete, actionable suggestions that library administrators can implement in order to help their libraries become more veteran friendly, not only for patrons, but also for employees.

LEADERS: MAKE PEOPLE FEEL SPECIAL

AbstractThe author, a technology and nonprofit executive with a military background, knew Frances Hesselbein for a decade. When he first met her, in similarity to the circumstances of many other people, she had an immediate and profound effect: “I left feeling special and with an odd sense of empowerment that I could achieve whatever goals I had set.” He later became a professional mentor for “her mentoring and development program for teens, the Hesselbein Global Academy For Student Leadership and Civic Engagement Fifth Annual Leadership Summit at the University of Pittsburgh in July of 2013.” In drawing lessons from these experiences and encounters, the author writes: “We all meet dozens of people every day. We really have no idea what struggles and challenges they might be facing. If given the chance to talk or listen to them – take a few extra moments to help them feel special.”

Norms of Deference and the Impact of Military Background on Monitoring Firm Regulatory Misconduct

Norms of Deference and the Impact of Military Background on Monitoring Firm Regulatory Misconduct