Corporate Social Performance and Economic Cycles

This paper examines the influence of CEO career horizon problems on corporate social responsibility (CSR). We assume that as CEOs are getting older, they tend to disengage in CSR due to their shorter career horizons. We further argue that high levels of industry-level discretion (ILD) and blockholder ownership amplify the negative effects of CEO age on CSR. Using a panel sample of US-based firms over 2004–2009, we do not find the main effect of CEO age on CSR, but find support for the moderating effects, such that CEO age is negatively associated with CSR when there are high levels of ILD and blockholder ownership. Therefore, results suggest that CEO career horizon problems matter for CSR when (1) CEOs have sufficient discretion over the firm’s strategic decisions and (2) outside blockholders put more pressure on CEOs to engage in financial earning management.     

CEO turnover,political connections,and firm performance: Evidence from China

In our analysis of 5738 CEO turnover events among A-share listed companies in China over the period of 1993 to 2019, we find that CEO turnovers on average hurt companies' market performance with significant negative abnormal returns in the event window. We then group the companies into four types based on whether the outgoing and successor CEOs have political connections, and then calculate the abnormal returns in the event windows of CEO turnovers once announced. We find that companies generally enjoy positive abnormal returns if they replace politically non-connected CEOs with connected ones. Such a positive effect is more evident among non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs), companies with worse performance, and companies with higher financial constraints. However, abnormal returns derived from hiring politically connected successor CEOs turn to negative following China's massive anti-corruption campaign in 2012. Our findings provide direct estimations of the economic value of CEOs' political connections for A-share listed companies in China and reveal boundary conditions that moderate the influence of hiring politically connected CEOs.     

CEO given names and corporate green investment

Drawing on the psychology of names, this study examines whether a CEO having a given name that has a moral meaning (a moral name) affects corporate investment decisions on environmental protection. We find that a CEO having a moral name plays a significant role in increasing a firm's green investment. Further analysis shows that this positive relationship is more pronounced for state-owned firms. When CEOs' economic incentives are increased, the positive effect of CEOs' moral names on green investment is reduced. Overall, our findings suggest that given names with moral meanings have implications for the moral behavior of executives.     

股权激励、代理成本与企业投资效率

将股权激励、所有权结构、代理成本与投资效率纳入一个统一的分析框架,使用产权属性作为调节变量,代理成本作为中介变量,实证检验股权激励是否影响投资效率,以及股权激励、所有权结构、代理成本与投资效率之间的关系。结果表明:股权激励能够抑制上市公司的非效率投资,代理成本的中介效应显著,但所占比重很小,非国有企业的抑制作用大于国有企业,非国有企业的中介传导机制畅通;国有企业"期权激励"方式能够显著抑制非效率投资,非国有企业的非效率投资通过实施"股票激励"方式能够得到显著抑制;实施股权激励计划能够显著抑制上市公司的投资不足,非国有企业的抑制作用大于国有企业,非国有企业的代理成本中介效应机制畅通,国有上市公司的代理成本中介效应不显著。     

CEO性别、产权性质与公司过度投资行为

CEO作为公司最高决策者,控制着资源配置权及处于核心地位的投资决策权,性别作为其最重要的个人特征之一,会对公司投资行为产生重要影响.本文基于中国A股上市公司样本数据,研究CEO性别对公司过度投资行为的影响,结果显示,女性CEO可以在一定程度上降低国有上市公司的过度投资程度.同时,CEO性别未对公司的过度投资倾向产生重要影响.本文拓展了现有高管背景特征和公司投资行为方面的研究,对于认识公司不同性别高管的过度投资行为,以及不同产权制度对微观主体或个体经济行为的影响,均具有重要的理论与现实意义.     

Who really cares about the environment? CEOs’ military service experience and firms’ investment in environmental protection

Prior literature suggests that the chief executive officer (CEO) plays a significant role in a firm's environmental performance or voluntary pro‐environmental behaviors; we extend this line of research to examine the effect of CEOs’ military service experience on firms’ investment in environmental protection. Drawing upon the insights of imprinting theory, we argue that military service experience may instill in CEOs pro‐environmental values such as duty, self‐discipline, self‐sacrifice, and sense of community, which motivate them to adopt pro‐environmental behaviors such as investing more resources in environmental protection. However, we argue that the effects of pro‐environmental values imprinted on CEOs through military service are likely to vary across regions. In regions where the market is more developed and the local value system has experienced greater exposure to the impact of foreign values, and in regions where firms are more concerned about profit, this effect is likely to be attenuated. An analysis of three waves of a nationwide survey of private firms in China using the Tobit regression model supports these predictions. This study makes a unique contribution to the existing literature by linking a firm's pro‐environmental behaviors (i.e., environmental protection investment) to its CEO’s experiences in early life (i.e., military service experience).     

CEO Power,CEO Age and the Policy Instrument Property of State-Owned-Enterprises

In this paper, we examine the relationship between CEO power, CEO age and the efficiency of policy implementation in listed corporations controlled by each province’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) in China. We find that CEOs with more power implement policy are more efficiently. We also find that younger powerful CEOs will act more effectively than their older competitors. The reason for the difference is that younger powerful CEOs in state-owned companies are incentivized to implement their policy tasks to gain promotions or political capital. Our results are important to future SOE reform and to understanding the characteristics of SOEs as policy instruments.     

The Role of CEO’s Personal Incentives in Driving Corporate Social Responsibility

In this study, we explore the role of Chief Executive Officers’ (CEOs’) incentives, split between monetary (based on both bonus compensation and changes in the value of the CEO’s portfolio of stocks and options) and non-monetary (career concerns, incoming/departing CEOs, and power and entrenchment), in relation to corporate social responsibility (CSR). We base our analysis on a sample of 597 US firms over the period 2005–2009. We find that both monetary and non-monetary incentives have an effect on CSR decisions. Specifically, monetary incentives designed to align the CEO’s and shareholders’ interests have a negative effect on CSR and non-monetary incentives have a positive effect on CSR. The study has important implications for the design of executive remuneration (compensation) plans, as we show that there are many levers that can affect the CEO’s decisions with regard to CSR. Our evidence also confirms the prominent role of the CEO in relation to CSR decisions, while also recognizing the complexity of factors affecting CSR. Finally, we propose a research design that takes into account endogeneity issues arising when examining compensation variables.     

IT Investment and Innovation Performance of Industrial Enterprises: Empirical Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies

In this paper, a theoretical frame on how the IT investment influences the innovation performance of enterprise is set up, and the data of Chinese industrial listed companies is used to conduct an empirical test. The study shows that IT investment can improve the innovation performance of enterprises on the whole, but there is heterogeneity among different types of enterprises. Specifically, IT investment of low-innovation strategy-oriented enterprises has a stronger effect on innovation performance than high-innovation strategy-oriented enterprises; IT investment of large enterprises has a more significant effect on innovation performance; and IT investment of state-owned enterprises has a stronger effect on innovation performance than that of non-state-owned enterprises. These conclusions not only provide microscopic evidence for the promotion of innovation performance by IT investment of industrial enterprises, but also have important policy implications for the integration of informatization and industrialization and the construction of a digital China.     

Dollars and sense: The implications of CEO compensation for organizational performance

Crafting a compensation package for an organization's chief executive officer (CEO) that will help the firm maximize its performance is a vexing challenge for a board of directors. Management theory offers boards several practical hints. A board can put its CEO and the firm in the best position to be successful by (1) creating strong incentives for the CEO to act in the firm's best interest at all times; (2) benchmarking a CEO's performance and compensation relative to that of very high performing CEOs in the industry; (3) diagnosing and responding to CEOs’ feelings about equity relative to their peers; (4) paying a CEO with uniquely valuable knowledge, skills, and ability at the top of the market; (5) offering retention incentives if a proven performer with unique skills is leading a company; (6) resisting the temptation to simply mimic the compensation packages that work for leading firms; and (7) considering candidates’ social ties when recruiting a new CEO.     

Earnings Quality in Private SMEs: Do CEO Demographics Matter?

This study investigates the impact of CEO demographics on earnings quality for private SMEs. Using a 2012 sample of 30,476 French firms, we first find strong empirical support for a gender effect: female‐run firms engage in less earnings management than do male‐run firms. This result is consistent with female CEOs being more risk averse than their male counterparts are when making financial decisions. Second, CEO age is negatively correlated with the magnitude of discretionary accruals, and the relationship between gender and earnings quality is stronger for older CEOs. Overall, our findings suggest that CEO demographics affect the quality of accounting information.     

Does central bank independence matter for the location choices of Chinese firms’ foreign investments?

Based on the eclectic paradigm and institutional theory, we hypothesize that Chinese firms prefer to invest in host countries having a central bank with a level of independence that is comparable to that of the Chinese central bank. Using data of Chinese listed firms from 1999 to 2013, our logit models suggests that all components of central bank independence, namely personnel, policy and financial independence, and priority for price stability, have a significant negative impact on the foreign investment location choices of Chinese firms. The impact of central bank independence on location choices is bigger for non-state-owned enterprises than for state-owned enterprises. The investment location choices of non-state-owned enterprises are negatively associated with the distance between central bank independence in China and that in host countries, while for state-owned enterprises this distance has no effect.     

Presuccession Performance,CEO Succession,Top Management Team,and Change in a Firm's Internationalization: The Moderating Effect of CEO/Chairperson Dissimilarity

Extending the literature on CEO succession, we found that a succession event together with a change in top management related positively to strategic change toward greater internationalization. In a study of 160 Taiwanese firms, we found relationships between firm performance, outside CEO appointment, change in firm's top management team (TMT), and the degree of a firm's internationalization. Moreover, the positive association between a post succession TMT structural change and degree of internationalization was observed only in those cases where dissimilarity between CEO and chairperson (with respect to educational degree and overseas education) was low. The implications of these findings for scholarship and practice are discussed. Copyright © 2011 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Innovation-based strategic flexibility (ISF): Role of CEO ties with marketing and R&D

In this research, using a capability perspective, we first define innovation based, strategic flexibility (ISF) as consisting of three lower-level capabilities- market sensing, resource reconfiguration, and proactiveness; then link it to new-product/innovation outcomes, and develop a new metric of ISF that is input–output based. This metric captures a firm’s realized flexibility in translating market opportunities into innovation output. We then examine the role of CEO ties with marketing and R&D in driving a firm's ISF. Combining survey data of 191 CEOs with objective performance data, we find that (a) ISF is positively influenced by the frequency and duration of the CEO's relationship with the two functional units, but negatively influenced by CEO's relationship closeness, and (b) ISF contributes to future profit growth of firms. We test the robustness of our findings to the potential violation of sequential-ignorability assumption as defined in the causal mediation literature and find the results to be robust. The results provide insights into the role of CEO characteristics in driving innovation, and upper echelon’s contributions to marketing.     

政府补助、社会责任与流通企业效率

文章从流通视角出发,理论层面分析政府补助对流通企业效率的影响,探讨企业履行社会责任在政府补助与流通企业效率间可能存在的中介机制,并考察国有企业的调节效应。进一步利用我国沪深两市A股241家上市流通企业2010-2020年的非平衡面板数据进行经验检验,研究发现：(1)政府补助会促进流通企业效率的提升;(2)社会责任在政府补助与流通企业效率的关系中存在中介效应,即政府补助能够使流通企业履行更多的社会责任,并由此推动流通企业效率的提升;(3)国有企业存在直接调节效应和间接调节效应。相较于非国有流通企业,国有流通企业所获政府补助以及履行社会责任对企业效率的提升作用更低。研究为深化流通体制改革,提升流通效率提供了新的经验证据。     

An Empirical Study of the Impact of CEO Characteristics on New Firms' Time to IPO*

An initial public offering (IPO) is one of the most critical events in the life of a firm. As the IPO market continues to attract attention from both entrepreneurs and investors, research examining the relationship between the firm's characteristics and its IPO performance is growing. In this paper, we use the upper echelon perspective to empirically examine the relationship between the firm's chief executive officer (CEO) and the firm's time to IPO, a relationship that has so far received little attention. Using data obtained from 237 IPOs in the U.S. software industry, we found that the CEO's prior executive experience, network, and age are significantly related to the new firm's time to IPO. This study extends the understanding of the important role of the CEO in the IPO and provides investors greater insight into those variables that influence the speed with which firms go public.     

Generating Business Referrals for SMEs: The Contingent Value of CEOs' Social Capital

We examine how small and medium‐sized enterprise (SME) chief executive officers' (CEOs) social capital (as measured by strength of ties and structural holes) can help them bring business to their firms through the spread of positive referrals. Based on a sample of 408 French SME CEOs, we find a direct effect of social capital. Such effect is contingent on the CEO's personality, with social capital being most beneficial to CEOs with low levels of conscientiousness. CEOs' social ties facilitate the distortion of information, thereby leading personal contacts to give referrals to and endorse a focal CEO, even in the presence of negative signals, such as low conscientiousness.     

融资约束与我国企业对外直接投资——基于浙江省微观企业数据的实证研究

企业对外直接投资是我国当前重要的外向经济发展战略,因此探明其影响因素对于深化对外开放具有重要意义。文章在此背景下从微观企业角度研究融资约束如何影响企业对外直接投资,构建理论框架阐明融资约束的提升会制约劳动密集型企业的对外直接投资决策,但是会逆向促进资本密集型企业的对外直接投资决策;在此基础上,通过匹配《中国工业企业数据库》和《中国境外投资企业（机构）名录》中的浙江省企业数据在微观上验证了理论推论。进一步地,分样本数据回归表明国有企业、外资企业和重工业企业对外直接投资不受融资约束制约,而非国有企业、非外资企业和轻工业企业对外直接投资受融资约束影响明显。此外,文章通过零膨胀回归和排序数据回归发现较低（高）的融资约束增加了劳动（资本）密集型企业的对外直接投资项目数并加快其投资决策时间,与对外直接投资倾向的影响机制一致。     

非国有股东超额委派董事与企业现金持有

基于持股权与控制权非对等配置逻辑，文章以2009—2019年A股国有上市企业为研究主体，实证检验非国有股东超额委派董事对企业现金持有水平的影响。研究发现，非国有股东超额委派董事显著提高参股国企的现金持有水平，且随着超额委派比例增加更加显著；进一步地，该正向作用在中央层级企业及市场化进程较高地区表现更为显著；明晰其作用机理，发现其通过抑制超额持现所致的过度投资行为、迫使无效耗散的现金尽快回流进而提高持现水平；此外，非国有股东超额委派董事和超额委派比例均有助于优化现金二次配置，促使企业将超额现金用于发放现金股利及进行创新投入，并最终提升现金持有价值和企业价值。文章结论不仅印证和延伸混改推进过程中非国有资本在高层治理维度所发挥的积极作用，更为进一步深化混合所有制改革及完善中小股东保护体系提供借鉴。     

Performance of domestic and foreign-invested enterprises in China

Despite increasing attention paid to China's enterprise reform since the late 1970s, relatively little is known about the performance of reformed state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and newly formed private firms vis-à-vis foreign firms in China. In this study, we examine the performance of domestic Chinese firms in various ownership categories versus foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) based on two nation-wide surveys conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics in 1998 and 2002. We found that both domestic non-state-owned firms and foreign-invested enterprises performed better than state-owned enterprises. Meanwhile, three categories of Chinese firms—privately owned, collectively owned, and shareholding—had higher performance levels than the foreign-invested enterprises.