Top Executives Research Articles

Top Executives on Competitiveness: Survey of Digitalization and Internationalization in Hungarian Companies

Top Executives on Competitiveness: Survey of Digitalization and Internationalization in Hungarian Companies

Assessing the perceived e-readiness for teleworking: the case of a private company in Ghana

This study explores the readiness factors that influenced the adoption of teleworking in an organisation's operations. The perceived e-readiness model (PERM) was conceptualised as the theoretical underpinning for this study. The study used a sample size of 20 respondents who were purposively selected and interviewed for primary data. The data analysis was done through thematic analysis. The results revealed that, with perceived organisational e-readiness, the influencing factors were awareness, resources availability, commitment from top managers and executives of the firm as well as the implementation of governance measures and policies that facilitated the smooth telework processes in the firm. On the environmental e-readiness, government e-readiness was identified to be the only influencing factor, with market forces e-readiness, as a result of customer expectations, and supporting industries e-readiness were not felt to have had any impact in driving the firm to telework. Other implications are also discussed.

Tournament incentives and audit report lag: Further evidence

Organizations design their executive compensation such that there is a significant variance between the remuneration of the chief executive officer (CEO) and senior executives directly below them. This introduces a tournament among the top executives to determine who among them is best suited to succeed the current CEO. The tournament incentivizes the top executives to engage in behaviors that will enhance their chances of being champions in the tournament and consequently succeeding the current CEO of the organization. We research the impact of tournament incentives on financial information accuracy and timeliness. Specifically, we analyze the disparity between the remunerations of CEOs and other top five senior executives. We use the audit report lag as a proxy for financial information timeliness. After analyzing a total of 2,213 firm-year observations spanning from 2010 to 2018, we conclude that auditors’ perception plays a significant role in how tournament incentives relate to the timeliness of audit reports. We show that auditors may inadvertently discount the behaviors of senior executives involved in tournaments. We also show that senior executives involved in tournaments may engage in misbehavior through accruals earnings management. They may also engage in collaboration and positive effort. We find that audit report lag relates negatively to both tournament incentives and financial analyst following. Financial analysts following mediate the association between audit report lag and tournament incentives. Yet, audit report lag relates positively to accrual earnings management. Our results indicate that executive behavior, conditional on tournament incentives, significantly influences audit report lag. They further suggest that the financial analysts’ monitoring effect continues to work even in tournament situations. For the robustness test and to allay endogeneity concerns in our model, we perform a 2SLS test.

Does CEO popularity affect firm innovation? Evidence from the developing country

The purpose of this study is to provide empirical evidence from Indonesia of the influence of CEO popularity on firm innovation. This study draws on the upper echelons theory to investigate whether CEO popularity affects firm innovation. Upper echelons theory is the idea that top executives view their situations through their own highly personalized lenses (Hambrick & Mason, 1984). We argue that popularity may be positively or negatively related to firm innovation. The approach used in this research is quantitative. To examine the relationship between CEO popularity and firm innovation, this study employs a logistic regression on 378 firm-years observations during 2014–2017 period of Indonesian listed firms. The result of this study shows that CEO popularity is positively related to firm innovation. Our result is robust after mitigating the concern about endogeneity and self-selection bias. Further, we find that the positive relationship between CEO popularity and innovation is more pronounced for firms with a lower level of board independence. Our findings highlight the importance of CEO characteristics on firm behaviour.

Top Executive Turnover and Loan Loss Provisions: Evidence from Japanese Regional Banks

Top Executive Turnover and Loan Loss Provisions: Evidence from Japanese Regional Banks

Diffusion Patterns in Small vs Large Capital Markets – the Case of Value-Based Management

We empirically study the diffusion of value-based management (VBM) in small capital markets. Specifically, we analyse the factors that influence VBM adoption in Danish-listed firms. Based on a hand-collected data set covering 665 firm years from 2002 to 2010, we find that the same factors influence the diffusion of VBM in both large and small capital markets. Specifically, we find that large firms with a higher percentage of institutional ownership and with a CEO whose education is business-related are more likely to adopt VBM. Additionally, the control variables reveal a significant positive correlation between VBM adoption and leverage, capital intensity, liquidity, and the characteristics of top executives. Furthermore, we find that manufacturing and utility firms are more likely to adopt VBM than service or trade firms. Contrary to the mainstream opinion, we contribute to the literature that findings from large capital markets appear to be transferable to firms in small capital markets.

Short-form Video Content (SVC) Engagement and Marketing Capabilities

Manuscript type: Research paper Research aims: This study aims to investigate the role of short-form video content (SVC) in the association between marketing capabilities, influencers, and business brand engagement performance. Design/Methodology/Approach: Data was collected from 146 business owners and managers of private businesses from the central business district areas of the lower northern province of Thailand. A partial least square structure equation modelling (PLS-SEM) analysis was performed to examine the proposed relationships. Research findings: The findings indicate that SVCs enabled brand engagement and resulted in increased satisfaction with the influencer experience. The study found a positive relationship between marketing capabilities, SVCs, influencers, and brand engagement performance. Theoretical contribution/Originality: This study also contributes by providing empirical evidence of the mediation of short-form video content in the relationship between marketing capabilities and brand performance, thus suggesting that, in terms of the resource-based view (RBV), SVCs integrated with marketing capabilities contribute to fostering influencers to promote brand perception values into competitive advantage, while influencers are reaffirmed as having a positive impact on brand performance. Practitioner/Policy implications: This research also provides a practical outlook for businesses to better understand the adoption of SVCs at an initial stage and important practical implications for business entrepreneurs, managers, and practitioners regarding the use of SVCs to improve brand engagement performance. Research limitation: First, this study was limited by its focus on primary data collected using a survey approach. Therefore, future research may need to emphasise more subjective rather than objective research. Second, as this study focuses on top executives and higher levels of marketing managers, it could introduce potential biases. Further research, through the use of multiple informants (i.e., IT managers, lower-level frontline staff, etc.) in each business with well-rounded perspectives, could provide a deeper insight into the issues regarding such initiatives. Finally, more constructs related to the proposed research framework can be investigated.

RHETORIC ANALYSIS ON THE CONDITIONING FACTORS THAT WILL MAKE EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION PACKAGES RELATE TO PERFORMANCE OF PUBLIC ENTERPRISES IN NAMIBIA FROM 2017-2020

Salaries especially the packages of top executives has become a thorny discussion worldwide. In Namibia the executives are not only known for exorbitant packages but equally man the inefficient organisations. The purpose of this paper was conducted to achieve the following specific objective which is to determine the conditioning factors that will make compensation packages of executives relate to the performance of Commercial PEs in Namibia. It was all in the context of mixed research approach for data collection using a questionnaire as a tool. The paper found that 72% of participants indicated “Yes” to challenges with compensation packages of executives that hinder performances. It is recommended that the Government (shareholder) consider using an inclusive method to determine the compensation package for both internal and external arrangement, this relationship should be strengthened, by establishing an independent high-level committee on Commercila Public Enterprises (CPE) compensation. This would consequently reduce the 72% indication on Yes to challenges with compensation packages of executives that hinder performances. Government should invest in scrutinizing critical factors such as the age and academic levels of the CEOs, during appointments. It is further recommended that a study be conducted, to investigate the relationship between the roles of an independent high-level committee on executive compensation packages, aimed at enhancing performance in Commercial Public Enterprises in Namibia. KEYWORDS: Compensation Package; Performance; Commercial Public Enterprises; Executives

DeepEmotionNet: Emotion mining for corporate performance analysis and prediction

Since previous studies in cognitive psychology show that individuals’ affective states can help analyze and predict their future behaviors, researchers have explored emotion mining for predicting online activities, firm profitability, and so on. Existing emotion mining methods are divided into two categories: feature-based approaches that rely on handcrafted annotations and deep learning-based methods that thrive on computational resources and big data. However, neither category can effectively detect emotional expressions captured in text (e.g., social media postings). In addition, the utilization of these methods in downstream explanatory and predictive applications is also rare. To fill the aforementioned research gaps, we develop a novel deep learning-based emotion detector named DeepEmotionNet that can simultaneously leverage contextual, syntactic, semantic, and document-level features and lexicon-based linguistic knowledge to bootstrap the overall emotion detection performance. Based on three emotion detection benchmark corpora, our experimental results confirm that DeepEmotionNet outperforms state-of-the-art baseline methods by 4.9% to 29.8% in macro-averaged F-score. For the downstream application of DeepEmotionNet to a real-world financial application, our econometric analysis highlights that top executives’ emotions of fear and anger embedded in their social media postings are significantly associated with corporate financial performance. Furthermore, these two emotions can significantly improve the predictive power of corporate financial performance when compared to sentiments. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to develop a deep learning-based emotion detection method and successfully apply it to enhance corporate performance prediction.

The Role of Gender, Race/Ethnicity, and Other Factors in Influencing Top Executive Compensation in American Environmental Nonprofits

The article reports the findings of a pathbreaking national study that examines executive compensation in American environmental nonprofits. This article seeks to accomplish two goals: (1) examine the gender disparities in the pay of chief executive officers (CEOs), executive directors, and presidents in environmental organizations; and (2) analyze the ethnic/racial differences in the wages of the top executive in said nonprofits. The study uses financial information from Internal Revenue Service Form 990 to examine top executive salaries in 2,703 organizations. The author collected data from tax forms filed between 2018 and 2020. The article examines how gender and race/ethnicity are associated with compensation. It also analyzes how region, organizational type, urbanization, organizational revenue, staff size, the board size, the receipt of bonuses and incentives, the size of the bonuses/incentives, and the size of the base wages are related to overall compensation. Men occupied 51.2% (1,383) and women 48.8% (1,320) of the top executive positions in the organizations studied. Whites dominate the CEO position, that is, 92% or 2,488 of the CEOs were White, and 8% (215) were people of color. The study found significant gender pay gaps. While the median compensation for men was $117,468, it was $88,568.50 for women. Hence, women CEOs earned 75.4% of what men were paid. There was also an ethnic/racial pay gap. The study found that White CEOs earned a median income of $102,801. The median wage for Asian CEOs was 97.6%, Black CEOs was 96%, Latinx CEOs was 80.8%, and Native American CEOs was 73.4% of what White CEOs earned. White men obtained the highest median compensation of all gender, and racial/ethnic groups studied. The total compensation also varied by region, organizational revenues, organizational type, level of urbanization, staff size, board size, receipt of bonuses and incentives, the size of bonuses/incentives, and size of base wages. The size of the organization’s revenue, whether a CEO received bonuses/incentives, region, the CEO’s race/ethnicity, the CEO’s gender, and size of the staff were significant factors in the multivariate regression model.

Executive pay disparity and cost of debt financing

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the relationship between executive pay disparity and the cost of debt.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use a sample of syndicated bank loans granted to United States (US) listed firms from 1992 to 2014 and adopt the loan yield spread (Chief Executive Officer (CEO) pay slice) as the main proxy for the cost of debt (executive pay disparity). The authors also use the Heckman two-stage model to address the sample selection bias and the two-stage least squares and propensity score matching methods to control the potential endogeneity issues. To test different views about executive pay disparity, the authors adopt the cash-to-stock ratio to proxy for managerial risk-shifting incentives.FindingsThe authors find that the cost of debt is significantly higher for firms with larger executive pay disparity, which is robust to sample selection bias, endogeneity concerns, alternative measures and various controls. This positive relationship increases with the risk-shifting incentives of CEOs instead of other top executives, which supports the managerial power view, and is stronger for firms with higher levels of financial distress. The findings suggest that creditors view executive pay disparity are associated with higher credit risk and CEO entrenchment.Originality/valueThis paper reveals one “dark” side of executive pay disparity: it increases the cost of debt and identifies a significant role played by CEOs' risk-shifting incentives. The authors provide direct evidence of the relevance of pay differential to corporate credit analysis.

Economic recovery through multisector management resources in small and medium businesses in China

In China, the idea of business continuity management (BCM) resources rapidly growing however few studies arranged on the subject and found insufficiently addressing the issue related to the natural resources. As a result, the current study attempts to seek to provide a deeper knowledge of existing Small and medium-sized Enterprises' BCM practices and provide focus on the need to help these businesses for economic recovery. Top executives from 150 Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises filled in an online survey over the period of 2015–2020. After it the findings have been formulated. Chinese SME disaster (particularly COVID-19) experiences have been revealed in the report, but a lack of business continuity planning is also evident along with an inability to construct a documented plan. Despite the fact that SMEs resources have varying BCM information and training requirements, the findings show that a company's assessed disaster management, BCM expertise and training requirements are linked to its size, operational duration disaster experiences and economic recovery. According to the report, it is thus critical to help small enterprises, especially those located in disaster-prone regions. Public and private sector involvement is equally vital in promoting BCM practices among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This study has provided recommendations for the betterment of business management side by side with futures' research.

General overview of the first 50 years of Economic Notes, 1972–2021

AbstractWe review the five different phases lived by Economic Notes during its first 50 years. First, its foundation and early phase—until 1983—received great support from Monte dei Paschi and also benefited from a windfall since Robert A. Mundell attracted to Siena an international network of top economists, policy makers and executives, facilitating high‐quality submissions to the Journal. When Mundell's meetings stopped (in 1978), Economic Notes had already secured a good reputation and had become a champion of a pluralist approach, accepting papers from different disciplines and views. In the second phase—from 1984 to the mid‐1990s—the Journal, led by a qualified Editorial Board lived continuity but also some new directions emerged. Economic Notes became better connected to the local Faculty of Economics. Also, the drive towards pluralism of the early years was refocused to safeguard access by different economic schools rather than different disciplines. In those years, Monte dei Paschi too transformed from a mostly regional bank into a national and international player, thus demanding less visibility support from the Journal. Those events blurred the initial mission and started distancing the Bank from the Journal. The third phase—from mid‐1990s to early 2000s—saw the maximum productivity and visibility of Economic Notes. Monte financed Conferences with great resonance also owing to an exceptional Advisory Board. In the fourth phase—from 2004, when the Conferences became rare, to 2012—the performance worsened. Communication between the Bank and the Journal grew more difficult, complicating any planning for the future. The fifth phase— from 2012 to 2019—aimed to relaunch the Journal without a significant support from the Bank, which had entered a period of difficulties of its own. The planned way out of this situation was to develop a series of Special Issues through dedicated Calls for Papers. As we show, that strategy delivered some results and, in effect, Economic Notes’ performance rebounded. Nevertheless, Monte was progressively disengaging from the Journal, which, eventually, was sold to Wiley, the publishing partner. The sixth and last phase of the Journal—from 2019 to 2021—under the new ownership by Wiley marked a gradual transformation. In the end, it seems that the publishing venture initiated in 1972 is still making progress and providing a pluralist forum for discussion. The journey of Economic Notes is still on!

Impact of organizational climate, culture, leadership and structure on competitive advantage: mediating effect of absorptive capacity

PurposeThis research aimed to investigate absorptive capacity's (AC) mediating effect among four important organizational factors, namely transformational leadership (TL), innovative culture (IC), organizational structure (OS), organizational climate (OC)) and competitive advantage (CA).Design/methodology/approachA survey method was used for data collection and 107 valid responses were received from managers and top executives of different hotels operating in Pakistan. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) statistical techniques were used to analyze the data and test the hypotheses.FindingsThe findings infer that OC positively affects CA by improving AC in an organization. Furthermore, AC was found as a partial mediator for the relationship among TL and CA as well as for the relationship among IC and CA.Originality/valueDespite the abundance of research on AC, the empirical studies regarding Ac's mediating effect among various organizational factors and CA are limited. Therefore, this paper makes a noteworthy contribution to the body of knowledge by testing the mediating effect of AC among various organizational factors and CA with reference to hospitality sector in Pakistan.

Alliance learning process and alliance success: the moderating role of openness

PurposeIndustry and academia are interested to understand how companies develop alliance capabilities through managing the knowledge, for alliance success. This study aims to investigate how alliance learning process is related to the overall success of any alliance, and how openness culture moderates the relationship of alliance learning process and alliance success.Design/methodology/approachEnglish language questionnaires were sent to top executives of 400 companies because English is a commonly understood language at managerial level in Pakistani companies. In total, 186 usable answers were received. Hierarchical linear regression was used for hypothesis testing.FindingsAlliance learning is significantly and positively related to alliance success. Openness plays a role as moderator between the relationship of alliance learning process and alliance success. Contrary to the literature, at low level of alliance learning, high level of openness increases the chances of alliance but as we move toward high level of alliance leaning, low level of openness is more effective to achieve the alliance success.Research limitations/implicationsThe data in this study was collected from Pakistan. The results may not be generalized to other regions, especially to developed countries.Practical implicationsThe results have implications for managers involved in alliances. They can be benefitted by this study to understand the role of alliance (knowledge) learning process on alliance success and contingent role of openness on this relationship.Originality/valueThis study is an important contribution to understand the notion of organizational learning and knowledge management in alliance context. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate openness as a moderator of the relationship between alliance learning process and alliance success.

Pay dispersion and CSR

Inspired by social comparison theory, this study examines how the pay dispersion among top executives affects critical strategic decisions regarding corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the US. The results indicate that highly dispersed executive pay evokes a sense of unfairness that drives executives to pursue personal rather than stakeholder interests by ignoring signals of unethicality. The effects are more pronounced for firms that have higher agency costs, because they are less able to monitor their executives. This study contributes to the CSR and pay dispersion literature by showing how pay dispersion is associated with executive decisions regarding CSR.

Philanthropy, audit firms culture and auditor independence.

In this study, we examine how the prosocial ethical culture in audit firms, measured as their philanthropic contributions over gross revenues, influences auditor independence. Using 5,246 audits in the Chinese market between 2010 and 2012, we find that the level of ethical culture in audit firms is significantly negatively associated with the magnitude of earnings management and the frequencies of financial restatements of their client firms. We also find this association is even stronger when auditors provide services to clients that are economically important or when signing auditors bear school ties with at least one top executive of the client. Further evidence show that the ethical culture can both act as a mechanism that attract auditors with a compatible internal norm, and great a group norm in audit firms that directly shape auditor behavior. Collectively, our study suggests that ethical culture of audit firms can significantly improve auditor independence.

Constraints to manufacturing companies in implementation of green manufacturing in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Despite the crucial role that businesses have played in the adoption of green supply chains, it appears that manufacturing enterprises have not effectively utilized their responsibility to ensure green manufacturing. This study uses Bakhresa Foods Product Limited as a case study to better understand the constraints facing manufacturing firms engaged in green manufacturing and offers suggestions for overcoming them. A qualitative design was adopted and data was gathered via in-depth interviews, focus group discussions (FGD), indirect observation, and secondary data analysis based on a purposive sample size of 60 respondents. Using the MAXQDA 10 program, data were analyzed using the thematic analysis technique. The study's findings showed that constraints to reducing were associated with a lack of innovation, professionals, an understanding of economics and finance and presence of extensive inventories, and inadequate production planning. Remanufacturing was further constrained by poor technology, unfavorable consumer attitudes, and a weak market strategy. Other constraints with reuse came from poor customer attitudes and awareness, lack of uniform standards for materials and goods, and inadequate government support. Constraints to recycling include a lack of support from senior top management executives, significant upfront expenses, and low-quality recycled goods. Therefore, to improve the situation, we suggest that industries make use of modernized equipment, and clean technology, improve monitoring and evaluation systems, implement the lean production philosophy, and give education about the value of recycling programs.

CEO cultural background and corporate cash holdings

AbstractThis paper examines whether the cultural background of chief executive officers (CEOs) affects corporate cash holdings. Using UK data from 2000 to 2018, we find that CEOs with a cultural background that emphasises power distance and uncertainty avoidance are positively associated with corporate cash holdings, while CEOs with a cultural background that emphasises masculinity are negatively associated with corporate cash holdings. Our results are robust to various robustness tests. Further analyses show that the impact is more pronounced when power is concentrated among top executives, when the CEOs have a degree of discretion in pursuing their own goals, and when information asymmetry is high.

Management friendship and insider opportunism

This study documents a significant increase in both trading activity and profitability of opportunistic top managers when a CEO develops a strong connection with subordinate executives through co-opting the executives who share social ties with him/her. This baseline evidence is robust to endogeneity concerns, alternative measures of management connection and insider opportunism, as well as controlling for other CEO and board attributes. Further analyses reveal that interpersonal connections between top managers are more likely to increase opportunistic insider trading in firms with lower-quality voluntary disclosures, more sociable executives, and relaxing legal barriers to insider trades. Increased insider opportunism in response to the CEO’s connection with other top executives engenders less informative stock prices and depresses stock market liquidity. Finally, insider trades in firms with stronger management connection are more predictive of future stock returns.