Founder CEOs,personal incentives,and corporate social irresponsibility

This study integrates organizational identity (OI) theory and upper echelons theory to explore the impact of CEOs’ founder status on corporate social irresponsibility (CSI). We theorize that compared with other CEOs, a founder CEO is more likely to generate a high degree of OI with the firm, which will drive the founder CEO to actively avoid CSI that may damage the positive image and long-term development of the firm. Furthermore, we argue that CEO duality and CEO ownership will strengthen the aforementioned relationship by increasing the possibility of founder CEOs generating a high degree of OI. Conversely, CEO underpayment will weaken the relationship between founder status and CSI by decreasing the possibility of founder CEOs generating a high degree of OI. We obtained empirical evidence in support of our arguments from a large Chinese private listed company dataset. Overall, this study’s theory and evidence clearly show that founder status and personal incentives can jointly shape CEOs’ CSI decisions, thereby providing useful insights for corporate shareholders and government agencies to better prevent and govern firms’ CSI.     

The sensitivity of compensation to social capital: Family CEOs vs. nonfamily CEOs in the family business groups

This study examines the role of CEO social capital, defined as external directorship ties held by the CEO, in determining family vs. nonfamily CEOs' compensation in a network-based business society and governance system. Using a sample of pooled data of family firms listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE) from 2000 to 2002, the empirical results show that CEO social capital is an important determinant in setting nonfamily CEOs' pay level, consistent with the expectation of the contractual governance model. By contrast, as expected by relational governance model, family CEOs' social capital is not incentive-relevant. This study extends the literature on CEO compensation by documenting that in a market where guanxi and connections are considered valuable business tools, corporations will be willing to compensate professional CEOs for the social capital that they bring to the firm.     

商业“她时代”萌芽下的中国“裙子CEO”资本初探

对于"裙子CEO",早已引起社会广泛关注。研究显示:人力资本、社会资本以及人丽资本三者共同促成了女CEO这一特殊人才的形成。其人力资本与企业绩效是成正相关,发挥作用最大;社会资本这把双刃剑对于女CEO来说还是处于一个"凸弧"的上升阶段,还未发挥其最大的效用,有待开发;人丽资本对女CEO工作是有帮助的。研究同时表明:人力资本的形成过程中,IQ比EQ起的作用要稍大一些,说明在社会资本的组成里,情商要比智商更加重要。研究成果进一步表明,不仅人们不能带着有色眼镜看待女CEO,而且为正在奋斗成为女CEO路上的女高官以及普通女职员们指明了一个正确的职业导向,即加强学习,努力增强自己的人力资本,才能尽快地化茧成蝶。     

The Effects of CEO Founder Status and Stock Ownership on Entrepreneurial Orientation in Small Firms

This paper studies how governance drives entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in small firms. We argue that founder status and ownership create powerful personal incentives for small firm CEOs to engage in behaviors that influence EO. Integrating stewardship theory and the principal‐principal branch of agency theory, we test our hypotheses on a sample of 339 Swedish firms, and find that CEO founder status is significantly and positively associated with EO, while CEO stock ownership significantly but negatively predicts EO. We additionally test two boundary conditions that show that the founder‐CEO's prior managerial experience in start‐up firms positively moderates the founder‐EO relationship, while contrary to expectations, CEO ownership diversification has no effect on the negative association between ownership and EO. Thus, our study adopts a corporate governance perspective to explain how variations in EO across small firms are driven by the goals and motivations of its leader. Our research also shows that in small, private firms the balance of power is tipped in favor of the CEO rather than the board of directors. Finally, we underline the importance of adopting alternative theoretical lens like stewardship and principal‐principal agency, given that traditional principal‐agent problems are largely mitigated in the small firm context.     

Top management team turnover, CEO succession type, and strategic change

While previous research suggests that CEO turnover correlates with strategic changes in firm's operations such as discontinuation of operations, we demonstrate that such findings apply only to specific types of CEO turnover, and only if non-CEO members of the top management team also exit the firm. Our analysis examines cases of contender, follower, and outsider succession and reinforces the key role of non-CEO departures in strategic change at a firm. The results support an integration of the upper echelons perspective and the power circulation theory view of top management team turnover.     

Founder management and the market for corporate control for IPO firms: The moderating effect of the power structure of the firm

This study draws on agency and stewardship theory to evaluate the relationship between alternative governance regimes (founder versus non-founder CEO) adopted at the time of going public on post-IPO economic outcomes in the market for corporate control. We find that the presence of founder CEOs reduces the likelihood of post-IPO change of control but enhances target IPO firm wealth by increasing acquisition premiums. Additionally, we examine whether measures of CEO power over the board moderate the relationship between founder management and target IPO firm wealth. Our results suggest that CEO duality is the most effective instrument of CEO power available to founder CEOs to positively influence target firm wealth. Further, we find that while founder CEOs utilize power derived from CEO duality to increase acquisition premiums, non-founder CEOs use board leadership power to expropriate shareholder wealth.     

New insights into venture capitalists' activity: IPO and time-to-exit forecast as antecedents of their post-investment involvement

We examine how VCFs' forecast of an IPO exit affects their breadth of advising and the likelihood of founder–CEO replacement shortly after they invest in a new venture. Moreover, we examine how the expected time-to-exit moderates these relationships. Our findings show that the likelihood of founder–CEO replacement upon receiving venture capital funding is significantly greater if a VCF perceives this company as a potential IPO as opposed to a trade sale, and this likelihood increases if the forecasted time-to-exit is short. We also illustrate how the breadth of advice varies as a function of the forecasted IPO and time-to-exit.     

The impact of pay on CEO turnover: A test of two perspectives

We investigate the impact of pay on CEO turnover from two perspectives. One is managerial power perspective that focuses on power in the setting of CEO pay. The other is tournament theory that treats CEO pay as a top prize designed to motivate executives to work hard for the top position. Building on research that highlights the impact of power dynamics at the top of the firm on CEO turnover, we propose that managerial power perspective suggests a negative impact of CEO pay on CEO turnover, while tournament theory suggests a positive impact. Using data from a sample of 313 large U.S. companies from 1988 to 1997, we find that both the level of CEO pay and its ratio over the average pay of the firm's four other highest paid executives have a negative impact on CEO turnover.     

An examination of the substitutability of founders human and financial capital in emerging business ventures

Undoubtedly, access to financial capital and other resources is an important antecedent of new venture performance. Indeed, inadequate financial resources often are cited as a primary reason why emerging businesses fail (Barren 1989; McQueen 1989; Otterbourg 1989; Rujoub, Cook, and Hay 1995). Yet, there is some feeling among scholars that competent founders will find a way of coming up with necessary resources and capital Chandler and Hanks 1994, Timmons 1990, Thorne 1989. In this study, we seek to better understand and provide insight into the factors that determine the amount of money needed to start a business, and the factors that drive the decisions of whether such funding should come from founder savings or from outside sources.We explore two questions: (1) What factors are associated with the amount of initial capital raised? and (2) What factors determine the mix of founder savings versus financial capital from outside sources that create the initial capital structure? We seek to answer these questions using a sample of 102 manufacturing and service firms between 3 and 7 years of age. These firms were categorized as manufacturing, retail, wholesale, and business services. In general, the evidence supports our hypotheses. The amount of financial capital at start-up varies by industry. Of key importance in this study, human and financial capital appear to be substitutable. The analysis shows that, on average, firms with high levels of founder human capital and low levels of initial financial capital perform similarly to firms that have low levels of founder human capital and high levels of financial capital. Subgroup analysis provides insights into the degree of substitutability. This finding suggests that founders with strong background experience may be able to start businesses that survive and thrive with less financial capital than their less experienced counterparts.The proportion of initial capital provided by the founder differs significantly across industry types. In more capital intensive industries, founders provide a smaller proportion of the start-up capital. Interestingly, the amount of initial capital provided by the founder does not vary significantly across industry types. This suggests that the amount of initial capital provided by the founder may result from contributing all they can give to the business, which appears to be similar across business types. Finally, founders’ perceptions of their ability to recognize and take advantage of opportunity are positively related to the proportion of initial capital provided by the founder. This research provides insights into the factors that appear to drive the initial capital intensity and structure. To provide better understanding of this phenomenon, future research could investigate such practices as bootstrapping, asset sharing, or other techniques that allow founders to control resources without requiring ownership.     

Factors influencing the choice between founder versus non-founder CEOs for IPO firms

Despite the innate advantage founder CEOs have by virtue of their founding vision, organizational influence, positive image, and ownership stakes to lead their firms at their initial public offering (IPO), extant empirical evidence indicates that between a third to half of IPO firms go public with non-founder CEOs at the helm. Relatively little however, is known regarding factors that influence the choice of founder versus non-founder CEO for firms issuing IPOs. This study examines the impact of factors such as founder characteristics, size of founding team, governance structure, ownership structure, top management team independence, venture capitalist influence, and the demand for equity financing on the probability of founder CEO at IPO.     

Does the origin of a succession CEO matter in the market value of innovation? Disentangling the origin of internal CEOs

This study complements previous research regarding CEO origin and family businesses by incorporating upper echelons theory with the perspective of family effect as well as disentangling CEO origin to provide a better understanding of how external, unrelated internal, and family succession CEOs affect innovation performance. We further reveal how a family founder helps improve the value of innovations undertaken by family heirs. The results show that firms with unrelated internal succession CEOs experience higher (lower) stock market reactions to innovation announcements than those with family (external) succession CEOs. Founders serving on the board reduce the negative effect between family heirs and innovation performance. Copyright © 2016 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

CEO compensation as a psychological exit barrier: An exploratory test with HMOs

Based on the comprehensive model of Gruca and Sudharshan (1995) concerning barriers to entry, this article posits that realized consequences for the incumbent are psychological exit barriers for the CEO and the organization already in the industry. Executive compensation is a key realized consequence for the incumbent CEO and hence a psychological exit barrier for the incumbent CEO. These issues are tested with a sample of incumbent companies with no hypothesized relationship between executive compensation and profitability. Specifically, nine publicly traded HMOs in the health‐care industry were analyzed over a 3‐year time frame. Because there was a weak relationship between executive compensation and profitability, only weak support was found for the hypothesis concerning executive compensation as a psychological exit barrier. Suggestions for further research are offered to further test the model and explore CEO compensation as a psychological exit barrier. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Inventor Chief Executive Officers and Firm Innovation

Using a novel, manually collected dataset, we find that firms whose chief executive officer (CEO) is an inventor experience significantly better innovation outcomes, as measured by patents and future citations. We obtain these results in models with firm fixed effects, in difference‐in‐difference analysis of transitioning CEOs that controls for the CEO fixed effects, and among firms with founder CEOs. Firms led by an inventor CEO also exhibit greater tolerance for failure as indicated by a greater number of both highly cited and uncited patents, and engage more in explorative search strategies that exploit new technological trajectories. Stock market, however, seems unable to fully capture the positive impact of inventor CEOs on future innovation: firms whose CEO transitions to be an inventor experience positive abnormal stock returns, especially during the early years following the transition.     

The effect of human capital, social capital, and perceptual values on nascent entrepreneurs�� export intentions

This study investigates the influence of human capital, social capital, and cognition on nascent entrepreneurs' export intentions. The results indicate that while human capital and social capital influence the level of intended export, cognitive characteristics, such as self-efficacy and risk aversion, do not seem to influence entrepreneurs' intended level of export. The study makes three original contributions to international entrepreneurship research. The first one is the focus on “Real” Born Globals, i.e. entrepreneurs who express export intentions in the prefounding phase. The second is the focus on the individual-level factors rather than firm-level factors that explain export. Finally, the effect of experience is investigated from a path-dependency perspective rather than a “the-more-the-better” perspective. Our study suggests that it may be productive for researchers to look further into the concept of intention, as entrepreneurs' decision to internationalize presupposes a conscious intention of carrying out the action. Thus, the factors influencing the decision to internationalize may have been present prior to the founding of the venture.     

Exploring the antecedents of social liabilities in CVC triads—A dynamic social network perspective

This study addresses the emergence of social liabilities by taking a social network perspective on intra- and interorganizational network configurations using the hitherto unexplored example of the corporate venture capital (CVC) triad (CVC unit, corporate business unit, and portfolio company). We investigate social capital and social liability resulting from network formation and transformation and assess their impact on interorganizational knowledge transfer and creation. Examining 12 CVC triads in Germany, we identify new antecedents of social liability, show that social capital can initially facilitate knowledge transfer and creation, and that structural and personal lock-ins may eventually turn that capital into a liability. We make key theoretical contributions to the social network and CVC literature.     

Industry competition and firm human capital

This paper argues that objective and subjective human capital may have substantial impact upon organizational performance in a competitive context. Objective human capital pertains to such features as education and experience, whereas subjective human capital relates to personality characteristics. The argument is illustrated by presenting the results of two empirical studies: (1) a cross-section 1990–1991 analysis of about 50 incumbents in the Flemish furniture industry-concentrating on the impact of subjective human capital, particularly the Chief Executive Officer's (CEO's) locus-of-control personality, on financial performance; and (2) a longitudinal 1970–1992 analysis of a cohort of 100 entrants into the Dutch audit industry-focusing on the influence of objective human capital, particularly education and experience, on exit by merger and acquisition (M&A) or diaspora. Both studies support the claim that objective and subjective human capital matters: for example, Flemish furniture firms headed by a CEO with an internal locus-of-control trait reach higher levels of financial performance, and Dutch audit firms with a high proportion of personnel with business experience are more likely to exit the industry over the years as a result of diaspora. Finally, the data of the Flemish furniture and Dutch audit industries are re-analyzed so as to compare the impact of human capital variables on small-firm performance in both industries. This re-analysis reveals that in both industries the impact of human capital variables is more pronounced in large firms compared to small businesses.     

Top management teams and corporate success in an emerging industry

This longitudinal study investigates changes in top management teams of a cohort of firms established in an emerging, high growth industry-the minicomputer industry. Given the turbulent conditions that organizations in this industry must contend with, top management teams do not remain stagnant. Most firms in the industry require a new set of executives to bring forth the organizational changes necessary to cope with major shifts in the environment.Little consensus exists in the literature on the impact of new executives on organizational performance. Studies have found that executive succession may be either positively, negatively, or unrelated to subsequent organizational effectiveness. The authors argue that a weakness of the existing research stream is a failure by scholars to adequately consider either the characteristics and skills of newly appointed executives or the patterns of change in management characteristics over time. The authors propose that organizational performance implications of executive succession events can be clarified by examining who the newly recruited executives are.When executive replacements are made, new successors often have characteristics which widely deviate from those of their predecessors. Such deviations in top management characterisics are shown to be pronounced where top management changes are made in response to crisis. In crises, successors are apparently recruited in an attempt to compensate for the shortcomings of their predecessors. However, while both high and low performing organizations make executive replacements as they evolve, the types of top management revisions they make differ. This study provides evidence that the types of senior management team changes made and the characterisics of newly recruited top management are related to organizational performance. High performing firms recruit new top management with new skills that are appropriate to the evolving environment. Lower performing firms somehow replace executives in response to crises, but seem to make the wrong executive recruitment decisions, apparently because the successors in the lower performing organizations do not match the changing competitive conditions in the industry. Low performing firms appear to recruit executives that entirely lack the types of top executive expertise are necessary for new environmental conditions.Although the majority of minicomputer firms required sizable changes in their executive teams over time, a small but significant subgroup of exceptional firms were identified that defy conventional wisdom. These extraordinary organizations were led by visionary CEOs—capable of maintaining management team stability as they successfully repositioned their firms' strategies to cope with continual environmental change. Among the conventional theories that these exceptional managers defy are: 1. Firms in high growth industries can be highly successful even if they retain their CEO/ Founders well beyond the embryonic stage. 2. Firms in high growth industries can retain a significant proportion of management ownership and still grow exponentially without financial crises. 3. Firms in high growth industries can maintain a high level of insider recruitment and still not become inbred.There appear to be two entirely distinct patterns of CEO/executive team success:Pattern 1 involves firms with no CEO change. This visionary CEO tends to be a founder who appears to be able to systematically recruit a limited number of external recruits in the top management team, selecting recruits who fit a changing environment yet also making maximum use of the existing team's longstanding experience and relationships. To maintain the necessary external perspective and avoid an inbred mindset, these firms a) tend not to allow the CEO to also be chairman, b) encourage a modest level of external ownership.Pattern 2 involves firms in which there is extensive turnover in both CEO and senior management teams, once again bringing in the kind of skills needed to match the changing environment. The CEO tends also to be chairman, and the external perspective is provided by having many external recruits plus low level of management ownership.     

Becoming a founder: How founder role identity affects entrepreneurial transitions and persistence in founding

We develop a new theory that views organizational founding as involving a role transition. Through the construct of founder role identity, we delineate how identity centrality and complexity affect individuals' ability to exit a work role in order to undertake founding activities. We argue that individuals are challenged to adjust to the founder role requirements and incorporate the new role into an overall self-concept. We then delineate how configurations of founder role identities influence persistence, and the longer-term outcomes of dormancy and successful founding.     

Founder retention as CEO at IPO in emerging economies: The role of private equity owners and national institutions

We integrate the institutional perspective with research on the governance role of private equity firms in an investigation of Founder-CEO successions in Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) in emerging markets. Using a unique, hand-collected and comprehensive sample of 191 firms having undertaken IPOs in 21 markets across the African continent between January 2000 and August 2016, we apply instrumental variable (IV) Probit methodology and find that higher levels of private equity ownership are positively associated with the probability of the founder's retention as CEO, especially in the context of low-quality formal institutions. Further, in societies with high tribalism, higher private equity ownership is associated with an increased likelihood of founder retention. Voids in the institutional architecture underscore the importance of the founder as a key organizational resource for the firm and a source of institutionalized legitimacy, which in turn confers on the firm an ability to access required resources.     

The role of market orientation,relational capital,and internationalization speed in foreign market exit and re-entry decisions under turbulent conditions

Firms’ internationalization strategies can vary with changing environments. Occasionally, a firm may choose to re-enter a foreign market it had abandoned in the past if environmental conditions have improved. The present study provides insight into the foreign market exit and subsequent re-entry processes. Specifically, we utilize the strategic flexibility perspective to investigate the impact of market orientation, relational capital, and internationalization speed on market exit and re-entry decisions under turbulence in a host market. Using a sample of 156 Turkish firms that operated during the Arab Spring in the Egyptian market between 2010 and 2015, we find that the market-oriented firms are more flexible in their market exit decisions than less market-oriented organizations. In addition, relational capital specific to the host country has a negative impact on market exit decisions under conditions of political conflict. The results also suggest that strong ties with partners in the host country increase the propensity to re-enter the market.