CEO compensation, CEO attributes and tax aggressiveness: evidence from French firms listed on the CAC 40

Purpose This paper aims to examine the impact of CEO (chief executive officer) compensation and CEO attributes on the level of tax aggressiveness of French companies. Design/methodology/approach The sample comprises 180 firm-year observations of 40 companies listed on the CAC 40 during the period ranging from 2008 to 2018. For the purpose of overcoming the problems of heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation, the authors apply the generalized least square panel regression. Findings This study’s results corroborate the importance of CEO compensation and CEO attributes as determinants of tax aggressiveness. In addition, the authors come up with the fact that CEO compensation has a negative effect on tax aggressiveness, and that older CEOs and CEOs with accounting expertise are negatively linked with tax aggressiveness. The authors also find out that there is a positive relationship between the CEO tenure and tax aggressiveness. Moreover, the authors report that foreign CEOs are more likely to engage in tax aggressiveness practices than local CEOs. Research limitations/implications The unavailability of all annual reports and the use of only one proxy to measure tax aggressiveness present limitations. This study shows significant implications for shareholders, regulators and researchers. As a matter of fact, shareholders will observe the effect of appointing a foreign CEO on the tax aggressiveness level. This study may also provide regulators with new ideas regarding the role of the CEO and its impact on aggressive decision-making. And it brings forth new insight for researchers through adding a foreign CEO as a new determinant of tax aggressiveness. Originality/value According to the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to provide empirical evidence regarding the effect of both CEO compensation and CEO attributes on tax aggressiveness. It also looks into the impact of a foreign CEO on tax aggressiveness.

The Effect of Board Governance and CEO Attributes Towards Corporate Performance of Malaysian Public Listed Financial Companies

This paper investigates the relationship between corporate governance, CEO attributes and firm performance of public listed financial companies in Malaysia from 2008 to 2017. There are several theories employed in the studies whereby the agency theory and resource dependency theory suggest that the board size have a positive impact on firm performance. In contrast, stewardship theory suggests smaller board size positively impacts the firm performance and prospect theory suggested that every person perceives and values gains and losses differently, and this affects the decision making. The firm performance has been measured using the return on equity (ROE) and return on assets (ROA). The data of the variables of board size, board independence, board meeting, CEO duality, CEO age and CEO gender are manually obtained from the annual reports, while the financial data include firm performance, capital expenditure and leverage are obtained from the Thomson Reuters Datastream. The research method employed in this study is the panel regression analysis. The findings of this study suggest that there is a positive and significant relationship between board size and firm performance and a positive and significant relationship between board independence and firm performance. Meanwhile, board meeting is found to have mix relationship with the firm performance. Furthermore, our result also shows CEO age and male CEO exhibit positive impact on firm performance.

How CEO Social Media Disclosure and Gender Affect Perceived CEO Attributes, Relationship Investment, and Engagement Intention

How does a chief executive officer (CEO)’s social media content disclosure on Twitter affect perceived CEO attributes, relationship investment, and public engagement, and to what extent does the CEO’s gender (male vs. female) moderate how publics evaluate content disclosures? A 2 (CEO gender: male vs. female) × 4 (level of disclosure: 100% corporate vs. 70% corporate and 30% personal vs. 30% corporate and 70% personal vs. 100% personal disclosure) between-subject experimental design was used to address these questions with a random sample of 465 adult Twitter users in the United States. Results showed that posts that featured high personal disclosure did not increase the perceived likability or competence of the CEO. Nor did CEO gender impact these outcomes. However, CEO professional disclosure proved to be an effective means to gain high levels of perceived relationship investment from publics. Finally, publics may hold implicit gender bias in cognitive (i.e., perceived relationship investment) and behavioral evaluation (i.e., engagement intention) of a female CEO.

An examination of CEO power with board vigilance as a catalyst for firm growth in South Africa

Purpose The recent collapse of the corporate giant Steinhoff in South Africa (SA) has highlighted the risks of a dominant Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and an ineffective governing board. For this reason, the purpose of this paper is to scrutinize the influence of CEO power attributes and independent governing boards on the growth of a Johannesburg stock exchange-listed firm. Design/methodology/approach The purpose of this paper is to answer the research question “Under the monitoring role of the board, what CEO attributes, theoretically and in practice preeminent successful firm growth strategies?” This question was answered by examining 130 companies over six years using the econometric methodology of generalized least squares and ordinary least squares with the specific inclusion of generalized method of moments estimation due to its efficiency in controlling for unobserved heterogeneity, endogeneity, autocorrelation, heteroscedasticity, amongst others. The proxies for CEO power are CEO tenure, turnover and professional skills as well as the explanatory variable of board vigilance. The response variable was firm growth. Findings This study found that CEO tenure is negatively correlated with firm growth indicating that long-tenured CEOs may stagnate the firm's growth. Furthermore, CEO turnover was positively correlated with firm growth indicating that a new CEO may bring innovative strategies that link to this study's finding on CEO tenure. The membership of CEOs to accounting professional bodies and board vigilance are also positively correlated to firm growth. Practical implications SA firms' growth policy does not solely depend on the neoclassical fundamental determinants of profitability, net worth, and cash flows. Since the value relevance of assessing CEO attributes as well as board vigilance in the SA market has proved to be very significant and will contribute to future decision making on growth strategies. This study innovatively illustrates the different drivers of firm growth, which is distinct from the normal macroeconomic indicators. The practical contribution of the study lies in the fact that organizations now discern which CEO attributes contribute to sustainability and profitability. Social implications The current depressed economic environment has several negative implications for the citizens of SA. The rising unemployment levels and inflation has deteriorated living conditions. For the economy to recover, SA needs its listed companies to remain strong performers to protect stakeholder interests and attract investments. The people responsible for steering the companies through this difficult time are the CEOs with the governing board protecting the public interest. This study examines these two important constructs concerning firm growth. Originality/value This study uniquely used a firm growth variable as opposed to the multitude of studies that used firm performance variables. Furthermore, this study's robustness was bolstered by an extensive theoretical framework employed to examine the value of a CEO as a firm growth stimulator. The period of this study is also unique as it examines firms in the aftermath of the global recession of 2008. This study provides a fresh perspective on firm growth indicators and has key implications for policymakers, stakeholders and regulatory establishments.

Earliness of SME internationalizationand performance

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand the mediating effects of Chief Executive officer (CEO) attributes on the earliness of internationalization and performance in context of Indian small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Design/methodology/approach The proposed framework is tested through analysis of a sample of 102 internationalized SMEs of the engineering industry in the Bangalore city region of India. Findings Results highlight that CEOs age and educational background moderates between early internationalization and performance in the Indian SME context. Practical implications Overall results facilitate in leveraging the decision-maker’s capabilities to successfully formulate and strategize their international marketing efforts to achieve higher performance. Originality/value The study enriches the importance of CEO attributes in influencing the early internationalization and degree of internationalization in the context of an emerging economy where studies are limited.