When does incentive compensation motivate managerial behaviors? An experimental investigation of the fit between incentive compensation,executive core self-evaluation,and firm performance

We develop and test an integrative model that examines the fit between compensation schemes, executives' characteristics, and situational factors. We propose that a fit among all three factors is crucial to motivate desirable managerial behaviors. Using a specially designed management simulation, our study demonstrates that the effectiveness of incentive compensation to motivate managerial behaviors depends on executives' core self-evaluation and firm performance. Our results show that, relative to fixed salary compensation, executives with higher core self-evaluation respond to incentive compensation with greater perseverance, competitive strategy focus, ethical behavior, and strategic risk taking during organizational decline. However, these interaction effects are not present during organizational growth. Our theory and empirical evidence provide significant insights into the complex relationships among compensation schemes, executives' characteristics, firm performance, and managerial behaviors. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive aspirations: performance consequences of risk preferences at extremes and alternative reference groups

Goals or aspirations and their relationships to risk taking and performance are important issues in both psychology and strategic management. The concept of adaptive aspirations, as discussed in Cyert and March's Behavioral Theory of the Firm, has long been a topic of interest in both fields. Moreover, many studies in strategy have focused on risk and/or extreme performance. In the current paper, we build on earlier models of adaptive aspirations. We introduce into the models a new risk preference function that incorporates changes in risk preference at extremes of performance. Based on empirical studies and the managerial literature, we also introduce alternative strategies for setting reference groups. Simulations of the resulting models suggest important differences in outcomes from earlier studies and this invites further empirical investigation. These simulations also have significant implications for managerial goal setting. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Top management conservatism and corporate risk strategies: Evidence from managers' personal political orientation and corporate tax avoidance

We investigate whether managers' personal political orientation helps explain tax avoidance at the firms they manage. Results reveal the intriguing finding that, on average, firms with top executives who lean toward the Republican Party actually engage in less tax avoidance than firms whose executives lean toward the Democratic Party. We also examine changes in tax avoidance around CEO turnovers and find corroborating evidence. Additionally, we find that political orientation is helpful in explaining top management team composition and CEO succession. Our paper extends theory and research by (1) illustrating how tax avoidance can serve as another measure of corporate risk taking and (2) using political orientation as a proxy for managerial conservatism, which is an ex ante measure of a manager's propensity toward risk. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Environmental risk management and the cost of capital

Our study of 267 U.S. firms shows that improved environmental risk management is associated with a lower cost of capital. Our findings provide an alternative perspective on the environmental‐economic performance relationship, which has been dominated by the view that improvements in economic performance stem from better resource utilization. Firms also benefit from improved environmental risk management through a reduction in their cost of equity capital, a shift from equity to debt financing, and higher tax benefits associated with the ability to add debt. These findings help build better theory regarding the outcomes of strategic improvements in environmental risk management. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reconfiguration,restructuring and firm performance: Dynamic capabilities and environmental dynamism

Research summary: Reorganization has been proposed as a key dynamic capability. This study compares the performance outcomes of two forms of reorganization, differing in their pervasiveness: organizational restructuring and organizational reconfiguration. Our dynamic panel data analysis of large U.S. corporations between 1985 and 2004 finds contrasting performance outcomes for these two forms of reorganization: in general, the more pervasive restructuring is associated with positive performance outcomes, while the more limited reconfiguration is associated with negative performance outcomes. However, outcomes vary by environment. Consistent with dynamic capabilities theory, we find evidence that in dynamic environments reconfiguration outcomes turn positive, while restructuring outcomes turn negative. We discuss implications for dynamic capabilities theory and managerial policy. Managerial summary: Firms need to reorganize in order to adapt to change. This study compares the financial performance consequences of two forms of reorganization: organizational restructurings and organizational reconfigurations. Restructurings involve fundamental change in organizational principles and are typically irregular; reconfigurations involve incremental change and are frequent. Examining a set of large U.S. corporations, we find these two forms of reorganization have contrasting financial consequences, depending on context. In the general case, fundamental restructurings have positive consequences, while incremental reconfigurations have negative consequences. However, this general result reverses in specifically dynamic environments, where reconfigurations are positive financially, while restructurings are negative. We conclude that the relative frequency of reconfigurations helps adaptation in dynamic environments. Managers should choose forms of reorganization according to the rate of environmental change. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of relative values of outside director stock options on firm strategic risk from a multiagent perspective

Prior work has examined the effects of absolute levels of outside director stock option grants on risk behavior without recognizing that relative stock option values could differentially affect risk taking. Drawing from the house money effect perspective, we extend this literature by examining how positive deviation from prior outside director option grants values influences firm strategic risk. Additionally we draw from the behavioral agency model and the power literature to develop a multiagent contingency framework suggesting the effect of positive director pay deviation depends on the incentives and power of CEOs reflected in CEO stock ownership and CEO duality, respectively. Our empirical results indicate positive pay deviation has a positive effect on firm risk taking while high ownership and duality independently and jointly weaken this base relationship. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A dual agency view of board compensation: the joint effects of outside director and CEO stock options on firm risk

This paper contributes to multiple agency theory by examining how the compensation schemes awarded to outside directors and the CEO jointly affect firm‐level risk taking. Using data of the S&P 1500 firms from 1997 to 2006, we find support for earlier arguments that providing the CEO, the outside directors, or both with stock options increases risk taking. More importantly, we find that compensating outside directors with stock options has significantly stronger effects than CEO stock options. Finally, contrary to what one would expect, we find that these effects are mutually substituting; that is, if both the outside directors and the CEO are provided with stock option compensation, outside directors' incentives weaken the effect of the CEO's incentives on firms' risk taking. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effects of perceived risk on control-compliance relationships

Although agent perceived risk is an important element in agency theory, it has received very little research attention. This paper explores two situational factors, specifically environmental uncertainty and agent dependence, that affect agents' risk evaluations and preferences towards types of control. We hypothesize that control mechanisms combined with situational factors affect agent compliance behaviors. Our results suggest that environmental uncertainty heightens the positive effect of behavioral control and the negative effect of outcome control on consummate compliance. Agent dependence further intensifies the effects of environmental uncertainty on the control-compliance relationships. We develop recommendations for marketing managers to develop effective control mechanisms in light of these results.     

PROFESSIONAL INTERESTS AND STRATEGIC FLEXIBILITY: A POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE ON ORGANIZATIONAL CONTRACTING

In this research we consider the interrelationships between professional interests and strategic flexibility. We specifically consider how the relative power of professional and managerial interests facilitate or constrain organizational contracting with external suppliers and providers. We explore these issues by focusing on hospitals competing in the health care industry during a period of heightened competitive and regulatory change. Our findings suggest that professional interests significantly influence the degree of external contracting. These findings have important implications for maintaining strategic flexibility in highly competitive environments.     

The effects of CEO equity ownership and firm diversification on risk taking

This research explores the effects of CEO equity ownership and corporate diversification on firms' risk‐taking and risk avoidance behaviors. Hypotheses regarding these effects are tested through econometric analysis of mergers in the U.S. cable television industry. Risk taking and avoidance are measured as horizontal expansion through acquisitions and as the divestiture of assets, respectively, in the face of increasing environmental turbulence. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Environmental Performance and the Market for Corporate Assets

Research summary : Scholars and policy‐makers have tended to assume that asset sales have a negative effect on stakeholders, but quantitative evidence to inform the debate has been scarce. In our research, we explored one way such sales could be beneficial: by facilitating the transfer of specialized capabilities used for environmental improvement. Employing quantitative data from a longitudinal sample of U.S. manufacturers, we find evidence consistent with the transfer of capabilities to or from acquired assets. Our results inform theories of ownership change and the conditional flow of capabilities among operations. They provide evidence as well of the existence of environmental capabilities. For policy‐makers they provide needed evidence and insight on the merits of regulations designed to limit asset sales. Managerial summary : It is often assumed that acquisitions harm environmental performance‐‐acquisition leads to greater emphasis on efficiency, while focusing on environmental performance is driven by managerial discretion. We propose instead that acquisitions might lead to improvement in environmental outcomes; the key is in knowing where to look for improvement. We studied thousands of facility‐level acquisitions and find that when a clean firm buys a facility from a dirtier firm, that facility's environmental performance improved. When a dirtier firm buys from a cleaner one, however, it is the dirtier firm's other facilities in the same industry of the target that improved. These results, along with extensions we undertook, suggest that managers and policy‐makers should view acquisitions as conduits rather than impediments in transferring environmental capabilities. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of Organizational and Decision-Maker Factors on New Product Risk Taking

Using samples of evening MBA students having considerable managerial experience, two experiments were conducted, through which we explore the effects of organizational and decision-maker factors on managers' new product investment decisions. Subjects were asked to choose among new product development projects having equal investments and expected values but differing degrees of risk. Riskier projects were chosen by managers whose organizationally imposed goals were based on aspirational versus survival reference points, whose prior project decisions had resulted in the accumulation of additional financial resources, for whom prior project outcomes were attributed to the manager's guidance of the project versus competitive factors, and by managers whose propensities to take risks were higher. These results have important implications for the design and staffing of new product decision processes, for the creation of organizational cultures that foster new product risk taking, and for other organizational practices.     

Examining the impact of job embeddedness on salesperson deviance: The moderating role of job satisfaction

This study investigates the dysfunctional outcomes of salesperson job embeddedness as moderated by job satisfaction. Our findings suggest that among salespeople with low job satisfaction, organizational job embeddedness is positively linked with organizational deviance, interpersonal deviance, and customer-directed deviance. However, among salespeople with high job satisfaction, job embeddedness is negatively linked with organizational deviance and not significantly linked with either interpersonal or customer-directed deviance. The managerial implications of this study suggest that sales managers should be proactive in mitigating salesperson deviance behaviors through a variety of methods that may enhance salesperson satisfaction, particularly among salespeople who are embedded. Such managerial methods may include the following: 1) more assertive communication of acceptable norms with salespeople, 2) proper mentoring, 3) developing coordinated monitor and control systems, and 4) setting appropriate expectations for new hire salespeople by providing realistic job previews.     

Unpacking Firm Exit at the Firm and Industry Levels: The Adaptation and Selection of Firm Capabilities

Evolutionary theory of business activity studies how firms are selected out of environments in which they do not fit, but most existing work underemphasizes the distinction between acquisition and dissolution as selection processes. We address this gap with a multilevel analysis that investigates how managerial and functional organizational capabilities affect whether struggling firms exit by acquisition or dissolution. We demonstrate that managerial and functional capabilities have heterogeneous effects on selection processes, with managerial capabilities having particularly strong influence on acquisition exits by struggling firms. The work provides a bridge between adaptation and selection views on organizational change; exit by dissolution represents selection of both firms and capabilities, while exit by acquisition represents firm selection but capability adaptation. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Deregulation,strategic choice,risk and financial performance

This study explores the effects of regulation and deregulation on strategic choice and performance in the U.S. banking industry. Drawing on literature from strategic management, industrial organization economics, and organization theory, we develop a framework which suggests that regulatory scope and regulatory incrementalism influence strategic choice and performance. A path analytic model is used to empirically examine these influences. The results suggest that deregulation has direct effects on firms' strategic choices and both direct and indirect effects on risk and return.     

Industrial dynamics and managerial networking in an emerging market: the case of China

This study examines how industrial conditions influence the level of executives' managerial networking with decision‐makers in other entities such as buyers, suppliers, competitors, distributors, and regulators in an emerging market. Corroborating a view that social capital holds contingent value, we theorize that executives facing different industrial conditions have different levels of commitment to exploiting interpersonal ties for fulfilling organizational needs. We propose that managerial networking is influenced by exogenous industrial attributes such as structural uncertainty, sales growth, regulatory stringency, competitive pressure, and production capacity utilization. Our analysis of executives in 364 firms in China demonstrates that the level of managerial networking increases when uncertainty, regulation, and competition increase and production capacity utilization decreases. For a specific firm, the link between industrial dynamics and managerial networking is moderated by its strategic proactiveness. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Understanding strategic responses to interest group pressures

With the increasing prominence of special interest group activity in the organizational external environment, we build on the stakeholder literature on strategic management to explain how organizations respond to pressures from such groups. Using a model integrating institutional, resource dependence, resource‐based, and cognitive theoretical perspectives, we examine the restaurant industry's response to the fat reduction pressure campaign run by a nutritional interest group, the National Heart Saver's Association (NHSA) in the early 1990s. Our findings indicate that susceptibility to institutional pressures partially affected accommodation to NHSA's demands, and more strongly affected organizational cognitions of those pressures. Our measure of resource dependence did not directly affect accommodation, but was significantly related to managerial cognitions. Resource‐based factors had a strong direct effect on the extent of accommodation to the pressures of NHSA, and partially influenced measures of cognition. Further, our findings indicate that managerial cognition strongly influenced an organization's response to NHSA pressure. From these results we suggest strategies for managers as they try to make sense of and respond to interest group pressures. We also point to future avenues of inquiries for researchers. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Supply chain risk management in financial crises—A multiple case-study approach

Supply Chain Risk Management has become a key concern for organizations, which is even further emphasized by the current economic and financial crisis. Against this background, this paper investigates successful approaches and experiences by companies in dealing with this new reality, especially as it concerns the supply side. Using in-depth case studies conducted among eight European enterprises, we develop a set of propositions about how companies manage supply risks in financial crises, highlight how their risk management approaches have shifted, and illustrate how they are related to Enterprise Risk Management. Our framework is further differentiated based on whether firms are predominantly engaged in manufacturing or services—a factor influencing how supply chain risk is managed. Transaction cost economics serves as our main theoretical anchor. By rigorously grounding our research in both theory and empirical evidence, we provide valuable insight for both academia and practice.