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Using a longitudinal analysis of publicly traded Fortune 500 firms, the authors find support for their hypotheses that a relative increase in female influence in the top management team (FITMT) is positively associated with (1) customer orientation of the firm and (2) long-term financial performance (i.e., Tobin's q). They demonstrate that customer orientation partially mediates the relationship between FITMT and long-term financial performance. The authors also explore environmental and corporate governance factors that moderate the link between FITMT and customer orientation. They find that this link is attenuated for firms that operate under high environmental dynamism and low environmental discretion, and for firms with high family ownership. Having high female representation among board members and more marketing-experienced board members strengthens the link between FITMT and customer orientation. These findings have important implications for scholars, boards, chief executive officers, and investors interested in identifying environmental and corporate governance factors that facilitate a greater focus on customers at the highest levels of the firm.

PurposeThis study aims to examine the effect of chief executive officer (CEO) integrity on organizations’ strategic orientation. The authors propose that CEOs who have high degrees of integrity tend to negatively influence each of the three core dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) – innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking. They also argue that this impact of CEO integrity is likely to be stronger for overconfident CEOs and the CEOs with high power. Furthermore, this negative relationship is expected to attenuate when the firm has high customer orientation and when the CEO is compensated with high equity-pay ratio.Design/methodology/approachSeemingly unrelated regression analysis was conducted on panel of 741 firm-year observations of 213 firms across 2014–2017. CEO integrity and each of the three dimensions of EO were measured using content analysis of CEOs’ letters to shareholders. CEO power was measured using CEO stock ownership and CEO duality. CEO overconfidence was measured by using options-based measure. Customer orientation was measured by using content analyses on annual reports. CEO equity-pay based ratio was measured as sum of value of stock and option awards divided by CEO’s total compensation. This study considered alternative measures and performed treatments for potential endogeneity, sample selection bias and outliers.FindingsThe research findings conclude that organizations with CEOs who have high integrity tend to have lower levels of all sub-dimensions of EO – innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking. Further, the results indicate that the negative effect that CEO integrity has, affects one of its dimensions – proactiveness, such that the relation is strengthened when the CEO has high power and is highly overconfident. This negative effect weakens when the CEO is compensated with high equity-pay ratio. The results also indicate that the negative effect of integrity and innovativeness and risk-taking weakens when the firm has high customer orientation.Research limitations/implicationsThe research contributes to upper echelon theory literature by adding to the discussion of how business executives’ psychological traits map onto firm behavior. This research also finds common ground between literature on innovation and upper echelons, contributing to awareness about the drivers of firms’ EO.Practical implicationsThis research addresses the question of firm relation to EO by highlighting that firms’ EO is also shaped by the psychological traits of their CEOs and the interaction of these traits with CEOs’ cognitive biases. Thus, board members of firms led by CEOs with high integrity can limit CEO’s risk-averse behavior by focusing on their training and by creating incentive systems. It is also advantageous for CEOs to understand that integrity is a double-edged sword, thus leveraging the strengths of their integrity, while simultaneously using tools such as training to diminish its negative aspects.Originality/valueThis paper fulfils a twofold identified need to: study the antecedents of each of the three dimensions of EO, not limited to corporate governance; and unearth the counterproductive behaviors associated with bright traits that make up their dark side

Public firms have wide latitude to release descriptive research and development (R&D) information. Conceptually, a higher descriptive R&D intensity (DRDI) enables a more thorough assessment of a firm’s prospects and reduces information asymmetry. However, such disclosure may undermine the firm’s future competitive advantages by allowing competitors to observe the firm’s R&D efforts more closely. By analyzing the textual content of 23,269 annual reports and leveraging the staggered statewide rejection of the inevitable disclosure doctrine as our instrumental variable for DRDI, we find that DRDI positively affects firm value. We also find that the presence of Chief Innovation Officer and intangible know-how positively, while financial leverage and market turbulence negatively, moderate the effect of DRDI on firm value. Notably, although both DRDI and numerical R&D intensity (NRDI) deliver potentially valuable information about R&D activities, DRDI is distinct from and has a more significant explanatory power of firm value than NRDI.

Social marketers and health advertisers often use statistical health information to craft customized messages for specific consumer segments. However, the composition of these segments can vary gre...

Despite the evidence in other domains that Black individuals can experience discriminatory treatment, marketing research offers few insights into how Black salespersons (as compared to White salespersons) are perceived and treated within buyer–seller negotiations. We address this limitation in the literature by conducting three studies. First, our findings show that White buyers with a higher social dominance orientation expect Black salespersons to bargain (i.e., negotiate) less than White salespersons. Second, White buyers with a higher social dominance orientation perceive Black salespersons to have bargained more than White counterparts (who have bargained the same). Third, when negotiating with White buyers with a higher social dominance orientation, Black salespersons receive lower product prices than White salespersons. Fourth, when negotiating with White buyers with a higher social dominance orientation, Black salespersons are less likely to be referred to other prospective buyers than White salespersons. Interestingly, no differences exist for White buyers lower on social dominance orientation. Combined, these findings offer insight into the type of discrimination that Black salespersons can encounter within buyer–seller negotiations by revealing how White buyers perceive (i.e., expect them to negotiate less; perceive them to have bargained more than they actually did), behave (i.e., offer them lower prices) and intend to behave (i.e., less willing to refer them to other buyers) toward Black salespersons as compared to White salespersons.

Although there is an established literature regarding brand transgressions, Covid-19 has highlighted the need to better understand exogenously created brand crises. We introduce, define, and distinguish between two types of crises that emanate from exogenous, offending brands and the broader marketplace-brand infection and brand contamination. We further present future research ideas that can provide insights into the prevention, mitigation, and recovery strategies that firms can employ to address exogenously created brand crises.

Over the past 40 years, scholars have demonstrated the effects of corporate social performance (CSP) on corporate financial performance (CFP), finding mixed results on the main effect of CSP on CFP. This study moves beyond the search for a universal main effect of CSP on CFP to examine factors that drive some firms to experience greater returns from their CSP efforts. Building from the signaling and stakeholder theory definitions of reputation and the trajectory literature in psychology, this study examines the following question: what is the impact of a firm's CSP reputation on the relationship between CSP actions and CFP in the current period? Findings based on a sample of 351 US firms demonstrate that firms with either a history of growth in negative CSP, a propensity toward increasing negative CSP, or a more inconsistent history of positive or negative CSP, experience decreased returns from current period investments in CSP.

This research examines the relationship between narcissistic personality characteristics in Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and firms’ innovation outcomes. The authors argue that firms led by narcissistic CEOs are likely to exhibit a higher rate of new product introductions and a greater proportion of radical innovations in their new product portfolios, but they are also more likely to encounter product-harm crises. The impact of CEO narcissism on these innovation outcomes is partially mediated by firms’ higher competitive aggressiveness. High power of the marketing department in the top management team, however, increases firms’ customer orientation, which in turn weakens the relationship between CEO narcissism and product-harm crises. A longitudinal analysis of a sample of 395 publicly listed U.S. firms in the period 2006–2010 provides considerable support for the authors’ hypotheses. This research underscores the importance of studying CEOs’ personality traits as antecedents of firms’ innovation outcomes, highlights the positive and negative impact of CEO narcissism on firms’ innovation-related behavior, and delineates the process through which this impact takes place.

This research examines the influence of chief executive officers’ (CEOs’) political ideologies—specifically, their degree of political liberalism (i.e., support for the Democratic Party relative to the Republican Party)—on firms’ innovation propensity (i.e., rate of new product introductions [NPIs]). The authors propose that CEOs’ degree of political liberalism positively affects their firms’ rate of NPIs. This impact is weakened, however, when CEOs have low power, when a high proportion of their compensation comes from equity, when the marketing department has high influence in the top management team, and when the economy is growing. Liberal CEOs’ greater rate of NPIs is associated with superior Tobin's q but also higher stock return volatility. Findings based on observations of 421 publicly listed U.S. firms from 2006 to 2010 provide considerable support for the authors’ hypotheses. The authors also examine changes in firms’ rate of NPIs and performance around CEO turnovers and find corroborating evidence for their thesis. These results highlight the role of executives’ personal values in shaping firms’ innovation strategy as well as the risks and rewards associated with aggressive NPIs.

The authors develop a conceptual framework for conditions under which news of a major customer data breach at a U.S. retail firm is likely to decrease other U.S. retailers’ shareholder value. Using the massive data breach at Target Corporation as their empirical context, and an event study of 168 publicly listed U.S. retailers as their methodology, the authors find considerable support for their framework. Results indicate that the Target data breach resulted in negative abnormal returns for other U.S. retailers, and that the strength of this contagion effect was moderated by factors related to retailers’ (a) size and product market similarity with Target, (b) governance-related tie-strength with Target, (c) information technology-related ability to prevent a similar breach, (d) marketing ability to respond effectively in the aftermath of a similar breach, and (e) corporate social responsibility. The authors show that although a major retail data breach may result in an intra-industry spillover, managers can use factors related to information technology, marketing, and corporate social responsibility to help insulate their firms from this contagion effect.

Product-harm crises are ubiquitous in today's marketplace. Prior research has explored the negative consequences associated with these crises and highlighted effective crisis management strategies. Limited attention, however, has been devoted to exploring the antecedents of such crises. The authors use agency theory to explore corporate governance and top management team (TMT) characteristics that impact firms' likelihood of experiencing a product-harm crisis. They argue that family firms, firms with higher levels of managerial ownership, and firms in which the marketing function has a higher influence in the TMT are likely to exhibit a higher strategic emphasis on product quality. Strategic product-quality emphasis, in turn, mediates these firms' lower likelihood of encountering a product-harm crisis. An analysis of 116 S&P 500 firms across 2006–2011 provides considerable support for the authors' arguments. These results have important implications for practitioners and for scholars working in the areas of innovation, family business, and corporate governance.

Abnormal returns are assumed to reflect the stock market’s reaction to the arrival of new value-relevant information about the firm (McWilliams and Siegel 1997). Prior research suggests significant heterogeneity in stock market reactions to firms’ new product introductions. The ability of the firm to effectively manage an event (in this case, new product introductions) is a key element that shareholders look for in assessing the value of the event. A critical determinant of the ability of a firm to successfully deal with changes in strategies and new strategic decisions is its governance (Sander and Carpenter 1998). Internal corporate governance mainly consists of the top management team (TMT) rewards, i.e., the compensation provided to the TMT (Gomez-Mejia 1992; Rajagopalan and Finkelstein 1992), and the functionality of members present in the team, i.e., composition of the TMT (Michel and Hambrick 1992; Wiersema and Bantel 1992). This article explores the role of two firm-specific factors in the stock market reaction to new product introductions: (a) the compensation of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) compared to the compensation of other TMT members (i.e., the ratio of total compensation of the CEO to the total compensation of average of other TMT members) and (b) the composition of the TMT, particularly, whether the TMT includes a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) or not.

This research examines the influence of CEOs’ regulatory foci on their firms’ strategic marketing behavior. The authors propose that CEOs’ degree of promotion focus relative to prevention focus positively impacts their firms’ likelihood of investing in intangible market assets (i.e., R&D, Advertising, and CSR). However, the authors also propose a dark side of CEOs’ promotion focus: a higher likelihood of firms getting involved in corporate social irresponsibility (CSiR). The impact of CEOs’ regulatory foci on firms’ strategic marketing behavior is proposed to be weaker for firms where the power of the marketing department is high. Findings based on observing a sample of 395 publicly listed US firms between 2006 and 2010 provide considerable support for the authors’ hypotheses. These results highlight the link between executives’ regulatory foci and strategic marketing behavior and underscore the positive and negative consequences associated with these foci.

This study explores whether family firms exhibit unique marketing behavior and whether their unique behavior in turn helps them outperform non-family firms during periods of economic contraction. Findings based on a sample of 275 large publicly listed U.S. firms reveal that family firms outperform non-family firms during recessions. This superior performance is partially driven by family firms' proactive marketing behavior and their relatively strong emphasis on corporate social responsibility (CSR). During recessions, while non-family firms tend to decrease their advertising intensities and rates of new product introduction (NPI), family firms are likely to maintain relatively high levels of advertising intensity and rates of NPI. Unlike non-family firms, family firms are also likely to maintain high levels of corporate social performance (CSP) during recessions. These results underscore the benefits of proactive marketing behavior and a continued emphasis on CSR during economic downturns. The authors also add to the scant family-firm literature, demonstrating the family firm to be an effective organizational form.

The authors explore the relation between the way different family firms are named, and the shareholder value impact of these firms’ new product introductions. Using an event study of 1,294 product introduction announcements of 107 publicly listed U.S. family firms, the authors find that the presence of the founding family’s name as part of a family firm’s name acts as a valuable firm resource, increasing the abnormal stock returns surrounding the firm’s new product introductions. Superior returns to family-named firms’ new product introductions are partially mediated by these firms’ history of ethical product-related behavior: family-named firms, particularly those with corporate branding, and those wherein a founding family member holds the CEO or chairman position, are more likely to exhibit a history of avoiding such product-related controversies as product safety issues, and deceptive advertising. The authors highlight the managerial and theoretical contributions of this research.

Product-harm crises are ubiquitous in today’s marketplace. Prior research has explored the negative consequences associated with these crises (e.g., Ahluwalia et al. 2000; Dawar and Pillutla 2000; van Heerde et al. 2007), and highlighted effective crisis management strategies (e.g., Chen et al. 2009; Siomkos and Kurzbard 1994; Cleeren et al. 2013). Very limited attention, however, has been devoted to exploring the antecedents of such crises. Addressing this limitation, the authors explore corporate governance and top management team (TMT) characteristics related to firms’ likelihood of experiencing a product-harm crisis. Analyses of 116 S&P 500 firms across the years 2006–2011 reveal that family firms, firms with high levels of managerial ownership, and firms in which the marketing function has a high degree of influence in the TMT, are less likely to encounter a product-harm crisis. The lower propensity of such firms to encounter a product-harm crisis is partially mediated by their higher strategic emphasis on product quality. These results have important implications for practitioners and for scholars working in the areas of innovation, family business, corporate governance, and the role of marketing in organizations.

While there is a significant amount of research investigating the impact of firm’s unethical behaviors on consumers’ attitudes, limited amount examines the effect of brand age, which is a potential powerful contributor to consumers’ brand evaluations, on consumers’ attitudes to firm’s unethical behaviors. The purpose of this chapter is to investigate the effect of brand age on consumers’ perceptions of the brand (e.g., brand personality) and its impact on consumers’ attitudes toward firm’s unethical behaviors.

The authors examine the effect of a major customer data breach at a US retail firm on the market value of other US retailers. Using the massive breach at Target Corporation in the year 2013 as their empirical context, the authors discover the existence of a strong industry-wide contagion effect; the results from an event study of 168 publicly listed US retail firms indicate that the Target breach resulted in negative abnormal returns for other US retailers. The authors also explore the role played by marketing factors in insulating some retailers from this contagion effect. They find empirical evidence that retailers where the marketing function held a high degree of influence in the top management team (TMT), those with strong marketing capabilities, and those with strong corporate social performance (CSP), experienced less negative abnormal returns surrounding the news of the Target breach. These results highlight the shielding benefit that strong marketing resources and high corporate citizenship provide to retailers in the backdrop of an industry counterpart’s customer data breach.

Family firms play a significant role in the U.S. economy. Not all family firms, however, use their family name as part of their firm name. For example, while Dell Inc. and Gap Inc. are both family firms, Dell Inc.'s name includes the name of the founding Dell family, but Gap Inc.'s name does not include the name of the founding Fisher family. This research explores differences in strategic behavior between family firms that use their family name as part of their firm name (termed family-named firms, or FN firms) and those that do not (termed non-family-named firms, or NFN firms). The authors also investigate whether FN firms perform better than NFN firms, and whether or not their superior performance is mediated by differences in their strategic behavior. Findings based on a multi-industry sample of 130 publicly listed U.S. family firms over a five-year period (2002–2006) show that, compared to NFN firms, FN firms have significantly higher levels of corporate citizenship and representation of their customers' voice (i.e., presence of a chief marketing officer) in the top management team. FN firms also have a higher strategic emphasis (i.e., a greater emphasis on value appropriation relative to value creation) compared to NFN firms. Furthermore, FN firms perform better (i.e., have a higher ROA) than NFN firms, and their superior performance is partially mediated by their higher corporate citizenship levels and higher strategic emphasis. The authors highlight the significance of these findings for both theory and practice.