Board effectiveness in corporate crises: lessons from the evolving empirical research

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 531-542 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gianpaolo Abatecola ◽  
Vincenzo Farina ◽  
Niccolò Gordini

Purpose – This article aims to comment on how the empirical research on board effectiveness in crisis contexts has been evolving over time. Over the years, the empirical evidences have demonstrated that particular board features can improve the survival chances of firms suffering a crisis and, to date, experts agree that discussing these evidences is necessary for the further improvement of knowledge in this field. Design/methodology/approach – This is a critical review article. Findings – Valuable evidences emerge from the review. For example, it seems that board independence has a key role in enhancing the performance of firms suffering a crisis. At the same time, the review suggests that further refinement is needed for supporting (or eventually refuting) the idea that boards and/or Chief Executive Officers (1) must be replaced to achieve successful turnaround strategies. Originality/value – On the basis of its findings, the review also prospects a number of conceptual and methodological implications for the future research and practice about board effectiveness in corporate crises. For example, these implications are associated with future investigations about the executives’ sociodemographic features and personality traits as well. More international comparisons seem also needed to improve the reliability of the extant knowledge.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pyemo Afego ◽  
Imhotep Alagidede

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore how citizen protests against perceived acts of racial injustice impact on share prices of companies who weigh in on the protests. In particular, corporate statements that directly address the issues around the protests are identified and possible mechanisms underlying how these may impact shareholder value are discussed. Design/methodology/approach The authors first use a qualitative research approach of content and sentiment analysis to track how companies or their chief executive officers (CEOs) present their stance against racial injustice, as represented by their use of linguistic markers. Then, the authors use an event study methodology to assess the response from stock market participants. Findings The findings suggest that CEOs primarily convey their stance using language that is emotive and empathic. In addition, shareholders earn a significant abnormal return of 2.13%, on average, in the three days following the release of the statements. Research limitations/implications This study considered only US-listed companies. The sample size, also, is relatively small. Institutional and cultural differences across countries may also vary. Thus, future research could explore the extent to which the findings generalize to other contexts. Practical implications Results provide insights to top managers who communicate with various stakeholders on emotionally charged social issues. Findings also offer insights on the timing of trades for investors and arbitrageurs. Social implications Findings contribute to the understanding of corporate behaviour in times of social upheaval. Insights from the study may also be used to inform corporate communication decisions about important social issues. Originality/value This study brings into focus the role that affective appeal and moral emotion can play in evoking motivation for corporate activism, and the impact that this has on investor opinions’ formation process.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 189-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian O’Boyle ◽  
David Shilbury ◽  
Lesley Ferkins

The aim of this study is to explore leadership within nonprofit sport governance. As an outcome, the authors present a preliminary working model of leadership in nonprofit sport governance based on existing literature and our new empirical evidence. Leadership in nonprofit sport governance has received limited attention to date in scholarly discourse. The authors adopt a case study approach involving three organizations and 16 participant interviews from board members and Chief Executive Officers within the golf network in Australia to uncover key leadership issues in this domain. Interviews were analyzed using an interpretive process, and a thematic structure relating to leadership in the nonprofit sport governance context was developed. Leadership ambiguity, distribution of leadership, leadership skills and development, and leadership and volunteerism emerged as the key themes in the research. These themes, combined with existing literature, are integrated into a preliminary working model of leadership in nonprofit sport governance that helps to shape the issues and challenges embedded within this emerging area of inquiry. The authors offer a number of suggestions for future research to refine, test, critique, and elaborate on our proposed working model.


2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (5/6) ◽  
pp. 670-694 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Voss ◽  
Mayoor Mohan

Purpose The purpose of the this paper is to correct a deficiency in the published literature by examining the share price performance of firms that own high-value brands in uptrending, downtrending and sideways markets. Design/methodology/approach The authors examined stock price performance for an index of firms that owned brands in the Interbrand list of the “Best Global Brands” from 2001 through 2009 using the Fama-French method. Findings The authors’ index outperformed the Standard & Poor’s 500 when the market was up or downtrending, but not when it moved sideways. Research limitations/implications The authors find that an index of firms that own the produced better returns than the Standard & Poor’s 500 market index. Owning highly valued brands may be a marketplace signal to the investing community regarding the firm’s management acumen. Practical implications Owning high-value brands seems to influence share price performance, a metric used to judge chief executive officers. Thus, brand investments align with the shareholders’ interest. The authors help alleviate the perception (Challagalla et al., 2014) that marketing managers make investments on an ad hoc basis. Originality/value For the first time, the authors evaluate the effect of owning one or more of the world’s most valuable brands on the market value of common stock using data from downtrending, uptrending and no-trend periods. This research is also among the first to introduce volatility into the Fama-French method and it is an important explanatory variable. This paper’s approach has interesting comparisons to other papers taking a similar analytical approach.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Mary Meldrum

PurposeThe overwhelming frequency of failure in trying to bring a safe and effective biotech, pharmaceutical or medical device product to market is truly astounding. This research synthesizes industry leaders' insights on lessons learned from reflecting on professional disappointments.Design/methodology/approachThis research used a qualitative approach to learning from the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), Chief Scientific Officers (CSOs) and Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) of the most successful life science firms in the USA. A total of 45 industry leaders were interviewed regarding their lingering regrets about their career misadventures.FindingsRegrets were unavoidable because there were opportunity costs for every choice each leader made. Commentary about wisdom gained comprised themes regarding valuable time lost, strategies that could have been enacted, products that failed and essential personnel who were not managed optimally. Contrary to expectations, there was little mention of money that was squandered.Originality/valueNot felt as a solely negative emotion, regrets were recognized by these leaders as a potentially positive influence on their future decisions. Not felt as a solely negative emotion, regret was recognized by these leaders as a potentially positive influence on their future decisions. This exploratory study suggests that learning from retrospective and anticipated regrets benefits life science leaders in gaining clarity of thought regarding their current business challenges. Because prior research on the value of psychological regrets has mostly relied on limited samples, this inquiry contributes a new vantage point by examining a unique population of senior business leaders, thus providing broader applicability to the organizational literature.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 108
Author(s):  
Zachary B. Awino ◽  
Bwire Joseph Francis

The study conceptualized the collective effect of TMT demographics, corporate strategy and organizational structure on performance of Kenyan PEs. TMT demographics have been posited to influence performance however; this position has been largely tautological and hence required more empirical testing. The study adopted a cross-sectional descriptive survey in which a semi-structured questionnaire was used to obtain data. The questionnaire was administered through a drop and pick method to a sample of 117 Chief Executive Officers. The study used both descriptive and inferential statistics for purposes of data analysis. Descriptive statistics used included mean, standard deviation, coefficients of variation (CVs) and t-tests. Inferential analysis involved the use of multivariate and hierarchical regression analyses. The findings of the study indicated that jointly TMT demographics, corporate strategy and organizational structure significantly influenced performance of PEs. The findings informed theories (upper echelon, configuration, institutional an behavioural theory of the firm) by showing their relevance and applicability in day-to-day organizational operation; decision makers at managerial level are guided on how to choose TMTs with the right mix of demographics, and policy makers on development of guidelines and policies that define the required TMT demographics during recruitment who can develop corporate strategies and adopt structures that bring about stellar performance. The limitations of this study pin-points some areas that need further research in the future. For instance, a qualitative research with variables such as culture and leadership could be considered for future research.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 417-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luqman Oyekunle Oyewobi ◽  
Abimbola Oluwakemi Windapo ◽  
Rotimi Olabode Bamidele James

Purpose – The essence of strategy formulation is to assist an organisation obtain a strategic fit with its environment and help enhance organisational continuous improvement in achieving performance excellence. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the type of competitive strategies used by construction organisations in attaining their strategic goals in South Africa. Design/methodology/approach – The study employs an inductive research approach using a well-structured questionnaire to elicit information from large construction organisations based in South Africa. Findings – The research identifies five strategic attributes that could assist organisations to grow their businesses and enhance their returns. It reveals that all Porters’ generic competitive strategies are significantly related to organisational financial performance measures except focus strategy. The research found that three generic competitive strategies are positively related to non-financial performance and that differentiation and cost-leadership strategies are capable of assisting organisations’ achieve their financial performance goals. Practical implications – The study results will be of immense benefit to chief executive officers as well as managers of construction organisations in growing their businesses and enhancing their corporate performance. Originality/value – The paper contributes both theoretically and empirically to the current discussion and findings on competitive strategy and its relationship with organisational performance. The results presented in the paper have important implications for the implementation of competitive strategies in construction companies and future studies in the area of strategic management.


2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-134
Author(s):  
Chiraz Ben Ali ◽  
Frédéric Teulon

This study examines the impact of board governance mechanisms on the pay of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) using a sample of major French listed companies for the 2009–2011 period. The results show that CEO pay is negatively associated with the presence of a family CEO and positively associated with board size, busy directors, board meetings, and compensation committee independence. We provide further evidence that CEO compensation increases with firm size, and both present and past performance. Our study casts doubt on the effectiveness of formal board attributes in constraining CEO compensation.


Author(s):  
Herman Aguinis ◽  
Geoffrey P. Martin ◽  
Luis R. Gomez-Mejia ◽  
Ernest H. O’Boyle ◽  
Harry Joo

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which chief executive officers (CEOs) deserve the pay they receive both in terms of over and underpayment. Design/methodology/approach Rather than using the traditional normal distribution view in which CEO performance clusters around the mean with relatively little variance, the authors adopt a novel power law approach. They studied 22 industries and N = 4,158 CEO-firm combinations for analyses based on Tobin’s Q and N = 5,091 for analyses based on return on assets. Regarding compensation, they measured the CEO distribution based on total compensation and three components of CEO total pay: salary, bonus, and value of options exercised. Findings In total, 86 percent of CEO performance and 91 percent of CEO pay distributions fit a power law better than a normal distribution, indicating that a minority of CEOs are producing top value for their firms (i.e. CEO performance) and a minority of CEOs are appropriating top value for themselves (i.e. CEO pay). But, the authors also found little overlap between CEOs who are the top performers and CEOs who are the top earners. Implications The findings shed new light on CEO pay deservingness by using a novel conceptual and methodological lens that highlights systematic over and underpayment. Results suggest a violation of distributive justice and offer little support for agency theory’s efficient contracting hypothesis, which have important implications for agency theory, equity theory, justice theory, and agent risk sharing and agent risk bearing theories. Practical implications Results highlight erroneous practices when trying to benchmark CEO pay based on average levels of performance in an industry because the typical approach to CEO compensation based on averages significantly underpays stars and overpays average performers. Originality/value Results offer new insights on the extent of over and underpayment. The findings uncover an extremely large non-overlap between the top earning and top performing CEOs and to an extent far greater in magnitude than previously suggested.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eko Heru Prasetyo

Purpose This study aims to investigate how digital entrepreneurs develop platforms business models under an unregulated market and what approach they take to address informal economy (IE) activities. Design/methodology/approach The author used a qualitative method by interviewing sixteen respondents, including founders, Chief Executive Officers, and managers of digital-driven start-ups in Indonesia. I then analysed the interviews into several codes and themes for further discussion. Findings This study reveals distinctive approaches performed by startups within three-level institutions, namely, users, market and regulation. Each level represents digital entrepreneurs’ unique behaviour, which the author described as collective, narrative and compliant. Research limitations/implications This paper demonstrates that digital entrepreneurs leveraging informal sectors contribute to the process of formalisation. However, the author emphasise less on how it impacts informality and who receives incentives. Practical implications This study suggests appropriate strategies for entrepreneurs who build and develop a platform beyond immature setting and unveils different directions to comprehend their legitimacy building. Social implications This study also elucidates political implications such as how the dynamics between regulators’ response and entrepreneurs’ reaction shape the new regulative environment. An idea of self-regulate – entrepreneurs as actors instead of a subject of regulation – might be suitable to reflect how they overcome the bottom of the pyramid using technology innovation. Originality/value While previous studies focused primarily on sharing economy, this study provides a different array of discussion on the digitalisation of the informal economy in emerging markets.


Author(s):  
M. Spremic ◽  
L. Turulja ◽  
N. Bajgoric

The paper presents two approaches in assessing the business continuity management (BCM) attitudes in the organizational context: qualitative and quantitative. The first approach - case study analysis is based on a series of in-depth interviews with the key people involved in the BCM processes in Croatia (Chief Information Officers – CIOs, Chief Executive Officers – CEOs and BC managers). The second approach is an empirical research that was conducted among companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina based on Confirmative Factor Analysis (CFA) which is used for psychometrically validation of the measurement scale of BCP and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and t-test for the hypotheses testing. The empirical research has shown that there is a statistically significant difference in terms of attitudes of respondents regarding business continuity depending of companies' size and sector that company belongs to. Specifically, financial sector is in all of BCM segments more coherent than other sectors.In addition, qualitative research revealed the results showing that business continuity plan (BCP) and disaster recovery plan (DRP) were the only IT governance areas that were implemented in business practice. The reason for that may be found in the fact that BCP and DRP are very expensive to implement especially for small companies.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document