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We used regression analysis to examine the direct and interaction effects of CEO academic experience and CEO duality on digital transformation in order to explain why firms vary in their digital transformation. Data analysis of manufacturing firms listed on the A-share market of the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2007 to 2022 reveals that both academic experience and duality have significant positive direct effects on digital transformation. Both variables also mutually interact to promote digital transformation. This study not only makes an important contribution to the research on digital transformation and upper echelons theory but also provides useful guidance for firms developing their digitization strategy.

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Integrated Reporting (IR) is a sustainability-oriented reporting format, underpinned by six forms of capital. This study explores the association between Multiple Capitals Disclosure (MCD) and board demographic characteristics and ownership structure in heavily polluting Chinese firms from 2012 to 2016. We adopt upper echelons theory and agency theory as the theoretical foundation for this paper. Our results suggest that board gender diversity and institutional ownership are positively associated with MCD quality. However, board financial expertise appears to negatively affect MCD quality. These findings remain consistent across a series of sensitivity tests. The insights gleaned from this study will prove beneficial to scholars, the senior management, regulators, and policy-makers.

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Upper echelons theory (UET) proposes that organizational outcomes are directly affected by the experiences, personalities, and values of individuals who occupy critical managerial roles within an organization. Using the lens of UET, this study investigates how governors' characteristics affect the management level of major road accidents (MLMRA). The empirical work is based on fixed effects regression models that are applied to Chinese provincial panel data from 2008 to 2017. This study uncovers that the MLMRA is associated with governors' tenure, central background, and Confucian values. We further document that the effect of Confucianism on the MLMRA is stronger when traffic regulation pressure is high. This study has the potential to advance our understanding of the impact of leaders' characteristics on organizational outcomes in the public sector.

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This study intends to examine the effect of CEO succession with gender change from male to female (i.e., female CEO succession) on corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting. Based on insights from upper echelons theory, it is proposed that female CEO successors are more likely than male CEO successors to improve the firm's CSR reporting level due to variations in their traits, values, and preferences regarding green issues, especially CSR. The study also explores the influence of the firm's ownership status (i.e., SOEs vs. non-SOEs) and performance (high-performance firms vs. low-performance firms) on the relationship between female CEO succession and CSR reporting. Using data from Chinese publicly traded firms from 2010 to 2020, this study employs the logistic regression technique to examine the proposed relationship between female CEO succession and CSR reporting and presents robust evidence that female CEO succession has a positive effect on firm CSR reporting, and that this effect is more prevalent in non-SOEs and high-performance firms than in SOEs and low-performance firms, respectively. The study adds fresh insights to the extant literature on CSR and corporate leadership and offers useful policy recommendations for corporate decision-makers and policymakers while considering women's involvement in succession plans for top leadership positions like CEO to tackle the strategic management of CSR disclosure in China.

Asunto(s)

Revelación , Propiedad , Femenino , Masculino , Humanos , Organizaciones , China , Responsabilidad Social

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The impact of CEOs' psychological traits on firms' decision-making has been explored by many psychological researchers. What's more, the CEO hometown identity, as one of the most fundamental psychological traits, has drawn increasing attention from the psychological literature. Firms' adoption of blockchain technology plays an innovative and efficient role in firms' strategic transformation. Thus, it is necessary to investigate the relationship between CEOs' psychological traits and firms' adoptions of blockchain technology from the perspective of hometown identity. To examine the impact of the CEO hometown identity on firms' adoption of blockchain technology, this paper manually collects information about the CEO hometown identity and constructs the index of firms' adoption of blockchain technology based on the textual analysis of firms' annual reports. Based on the theory about the psychology of identity, this paper constructs the theoretical hypothesis about the relationship between CEO hometown identity and firms' adoption of blockchain technology. Then, this paper uses a two-way fixed effect regression model to estimate the impact of the CEO hometown identity on firms' adoption of blockchain technology based on the panel data of Chinese A-share non-financial listed firms during 2008-2019. The research results show that: (1) the CEO hometown identity has a positive effect on firms' adoption of blockchain technology. (2) For firms with severe financing constraints and State-owned enterprises (SOEs), the positive effect of the CEO hometown identity on firms' adoption of blockchain technology is more prominent. (3) Our benchmark results still hold after a series of robustness checks, including altering the measurement of the CEO hometown identity, altering the sample, adding CEO-specific control variables, and altering the logit regression model. Based on the above-mentioned findings, this paper not only sheds new light on the power of CEOs' psychological trait but also deepens the understanding about theories of the psychology of identity.

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This study investigates the effect of CSR activities on business performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in South Korea setting. Based on upper echelons theory and stakeholder theory, the study further examines CEO tenure as a potential moderator between CSR activities and business performance. The study considers four dimensions of CSR (economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic) and two types of business performance (financial and non-financial). To test the moderating effect of CEO tenure, we divided the sample into two groups: companies with short-term tenured CEOs and long-term tenured CEOs. The data were collected from 443 CEOs of SMEs in South Korea. We used a multi-group analysis with SmartPLS 4. The study finds that CEO tenure moderates the relationship between dimensions of CSR and business performance. More specifically, the study finds that CEOs in early-stage tenure focus on philanthropic activities to drive financial performance, while their counterparts focus on economic/legal dimension. CEOs, regardless of the length of tenure, consider the philanthropic dimension helpful for improving both financial and non-financial performance. This study expands prior research by examining the relationship between CSR and business performance in SMEs, considering the impact of the CEO tenure. The findings of this study make contributions to the literature by demonstrating that CEO tenure is an important factor in linking CSR to business performance. This research also adds evidence to the CSR literature that economic and legal dimensions are considered mandatory responsibilities, and CEOs of SMEs view them as interconnected. For practical implications, this study identifies different predictors of financial performance for companies with short-term vs. long-term CEO tenure. Short-term CEOs focus on philanthropy to improve financial performance, and both long- and short-term CEOs believe that philanthropy affects the company's financial and non-financial performance.

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The intertemporal stability of research and development (R&D) investment is a key issue in successfully promoting the continuation of innovation activities under high uncertainty in entrepreneurship. R&D smoothing helps firms to navigate the uncertainties of the external environment and maintain the stability of their investments in innovation. Chief executive officers (CEOs) are the most important decision-makers in firms' strategic planning. However, overconfident CEOs may overlook the importance of their firms' strategic actions on innovative activities. Drawing on upper echelons theory, this paper examines how CEO overconfidence affects firms' R&D smoothing. Using a sample of firms listed in China's Growth Enterprises Market between 2013 and 2020, this study finds that CEO overconfidence has a significant negative impact on R&D smoothing. Furthermore, our findings reveal that firms' internal control quality and institutional investor monitoring can mitigate the negative association between CEO overconfidence and R&D smoothing. Our findings provide new insights into the micro-level theoretical explanations for R&D smoothing and offer practical implications for technology-based entrepreneurial firms.

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In response to both internal and external expectations and pressures, companies increasingly consider corporate social responsibility (CSR) as an essential factor in their strategic planning, but in a very diverse manner. To help synthesize the flourishing research in CSR variation across firms, we propose a three-orientation framework to map out a wide range of CSR strategies in current literature. Furthermore, we emphasize the importance of executive leadership and suggest that differences in leader's values are the key drivers of CSR heterogeneity. This study offers a parsimonious model that maps out three primary pathways between leadership values and CSR strategic configurations. Drawing from charismatic leadership theory, we argue that three distinct types of leader power motives define three modes of leader's strategic decision frames, which, in turn, influence corresponding CSR orientations. Specifically, socialized charismatic leaders favor prosocial decision frame that results in integrative CSR orientation; neutralized charismatic leaders embrace instrumental decision frame leading to strategic CSR mode; and personalized charismatic leaders tend to adopt self-serving CSR strategies driven by the self-serving decision frame. This holistic view advances the knowledge about the micro-foundations of CSR drivers and the essential role of leader values.

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Green innovation plays an important role in reducing pollution and promoting sustainable development. However, not all managers, as decision-makers of enterprises, have a long-term vision to implement green innovation. The impact of managerial myopia on firm green innovation has not been examined by existing literature. Drawn on time-oriented theory in social psychology and upper echelon theory in management, this paper puts forward the relationship between managerial myopia and firm green innovation, and then constructs a managerial myopia index by text analysis and machine learning. Using a sample of publicly listed Chinese firms from 2009 to 2020, this paper finds that managerial myopia is significantly negatively associated with firms' green innovation. Every one standard deviation increase in managerial myopia makes enterprise green innovation decrease by about 1.9% standard deviation. Further analysis reveals that equity incentives and institutional investors both weaken the negative effect of managerial myopia on green innovation. This study contributes to the literature on green innovation and upper echelons theory and it also has several implications for firms' engagement in green innovation.

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Narcissism is a deep-rooted personality trait that is particularly common in corporate leaders, and narcissistic leaders have a noticeable influence on the R&D investment behavior of enterprises. This paper empirically examines the effect of CEO narcissism on R&D investment and the moderating effects of financing constraints, and the nature of corporate ownership based on the Upper Echelons Theory, using the CEO signature size as a measure of CEO narcissism for the 2007-2020 Chinese A-share listed companies. The results show that CEO narcissism has a significant negative effect on R&D investment; corporate financing constraints play a negative moderating role between CEO narcissism and R&D investment, and the negative effect of CEO narcissism on corporate R&D investment is more significant in non-state-owned firms than in state-owned firms. The study's findings enrich and expand the theory related to CEO narcissism and have important practical implications for R&D investment decisions and the choice of corporate executives in China.

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Corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy hinges largely on the CEO characteristics in the context of an emerging market. Based on a sample of 16,144 firm-year observations obtained from 1,370 unique Chinese-listed firms, which whether voluntarily issue CSR reports over the period 2008-2019, this paper empirically examined the impact of CEO characteristics on the likelihood of issuing CSR reports. We find that CEO age, MBA education, international experience and political ideology consciousness are positively associated with the possibility of issuing CSR reports, while a newly appointed CEO will decrease the likelihood of issuing CSR reports. Moreover, we consider a contingent factor, namely CEO power over the board, can significantly enhance the relationship between CEO age, political ideology consciousness, and the likelihood of issuing CSR reports. Furthermore, there's no significant evidence indicating that CEO power can moderate the relationship between MBA education, international experience, and the likelihood of issuing CSR reports. Nonetheless, CEO power moderates the negative relationship between a newly appointed CEO and CSR reporting initiatives. This study attaches understandings to the extant literature that how top management characteristics can shape firm CSR strategies.

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This study examines the impact of top management team (TMT) media exposure on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the moderating effect of TMT characteristics based on the upper echelons theory and stakeholder theory. Based on the observations of 5,352 firms between 2010 and 2019, multiple regression analysis is conducted to empirically test whether TMT media exposure can promote CSR. TMT media exposure is further divided into paper media and online media to reveal the impact of different types of TMT media exposure on CSR. Some robustness tests are also conducted to strengthen the regression results. The results found that a high level of TMT media exposure promotes social responsibility. In addition, the TMT power and political connections negatively moderate the relationship between TMT media exposure and CSR. The main contribution of this study is to develop a TMT media exposure model to assess the impact of TMT media exposure on CSR, providing a theoretical contribution to the existing literature and enriching the research in the CSR context from the perspective of the TMT characteristic moderating role.

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Chief executive officer (CEO) tenacity plays an important role in corporate entrepreneurial activity. However, much less is known about its impact on employee intrapreneurship. Drawing from social information processing theory and upper echelons theory, this article examines the hitherto unexplored nexus between CEO tenacity and employee intrapreneurship, as well as the mediating role of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Quantitative data were collected through a survey administered to 294 employees working in different sectors that engage in CSR activities in China. Data analysis was performed using hierarchical regression method through Stata 16.0. It was found that CEO tenacity was significantly positively correlated with employee strategic renewal behavior (ß = 0.523, p < 0.001) and employee venture behavior (ß = 0.510, p < 0.001). The positive correlation between CEO tenacity and CSR was also significant (ß = 0.578, p < 0.001). Besides, CSR partially mediated the relationship between CEO tenacity and employee strategic renewal behavior (40.0%) or employee venture behavior (50.2%). This study extends research on CEO tenacity, CSR, or employee intrapreneurial behavior by providing a better understanding of the direct effects of CEO tenacity on employee intrapreneurial behavior and CSR. From the perspective of cross-fertilization between psychology and management, this study establishes the interface role of CSR by elucidating the intrinsic mechanism of CEOs with high levels of tenacity to stimulate employee intrapreneurial behavior through CSR.

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In the USA, governors became central figures in the fight against the novel coronavirus. In many cases, state leaders were forced to choose between preserving life and protecting economic livelihood. While prior research has underscored the important role that US governors played in implementing healthcare policies at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we know little about how characteristics of state leaders impacted self-employment. In this paper, we draw from upper echelons theory to examine how governor party and discretion impacted venture creation in the food and restaurant industry. Interestingly, we find no significant relationship between governor party and venture creation. However, we find that when the governor and legislature were unified in their political party - irrespective of party line - there were a higher number of new food and restaurant ventures created. We also found this effect to be strengthened when small business unemployment levels were higher. We explore the implications of these results for how unity of command may be beneficial during times of crisis.

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Based on upper echelons theory, the current study examines how and under what conditions CEO workaholism influences firm performance. Specifically, we propose that CEO workaholism is positively related to collective organizational engagement, which has a subsequent positive effect on firm performance. Top management team (TMT) power distance would moderate the relationship between CEO workaholism and collective organizational engagement in such a way that workaholic CEOs are more likely to stimulate collective organizational engagement when TMTs have a high level of power distance. Findings based on multi-source, multi-wave data from a sample of 122 CEOs in state-owned enterprises and their corresponding TMT members supported the hypotheses. This study is an initial attempt to empirically examine the effects of leader workaholism at the firm level, which answers the call for more research into the intersection of workaholism and leadership and carries implications for organizational management practices.

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The role of the CEO in an enterprise's management decisions renders their individual characteristics influential in decisions about mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Personal characteristics are based on many aspects, therefore, we provide a multi-angle insight into the personal characteristics of managers. Drawing on the upper echelons theory, we examine whether CEOs' proactive personality affects merger and acquisition decisions. The fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is performed using a sample of 64 listed firms in China for the period 2010-2019. There are three solutions for cross-industry mergers, and five for intra-industry mergers. The results suggest that: (a) proactive and overconfident CEOs are inclined toward cross-industry mergers; (b) non-proactive and low-educated CEOs are inclined toward intra-industry mergers; (c) emerging industry enterprises tend to choose intra-industry mergers; (d) overconfident CEOs are more likely to undertake cross-industry mergers in traditional industries.

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Ambidextrous firms are those that can simultaneously manage exploitative and explorative innovation, which is why ambidexterity is key for firms that desire to pursue strategic entrepreneurship. Researchers have explored many of the reasons why some firms are more ambidextrous than others. However, little attention has been devoted to understanding how attributes of top decision makers can influence their firms' ambidexterity. By drawing on upper echelons theory and goal orientations research, we explain how firms' ambidexterity can be affected by top decision makers' motivations in achievement situations (i.e., goal orientations). Testing our hypotheses on a sample of 274 top decision makers of firms in the United States, we find that top decision makers' learning goal orientation - their desire to take risks and maximize learning-has an inverted U-shaped relationship with ambidexterity while top decision makers' performance prove goal orientation - their desire to demonstrate competence with existing skills - has a U-shaped relationship with ambidexterity. These effects are weaker for top decision makers who have greater role experience.