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Despite recent evidence linking top management power with firm performance, our understanding about the interaction effect between power and personal characteristics of the top manager is still very limited. Building on and extending the Upper Echelons and Power literature, we address the empirical question: How, i.e. UK Vice-Chancellors' (VC) power influences the efficiency of UK universities? We use panel data from 126 UK universities from 2016 to 2020 to test our hypotheses. Our findings demonstrate that VC power, and its constituents affect efficiency. VCs with more power tend to improve the efficiency of the universities they run respectively. Specifically, VC in receipt of higher compensation and honour medals tend to improve the efficiency of the university they run. In contrast, if they are Oxbridge graduate and have long tenure, the efficiency will decline. More importantly, the interaction results show that a high-power VC who is not from Asian or minority background is shown to improve efficiency but a high-power VC who is a female will drive up efficiency. Our analyses reveal that a VC's power and the constituents to VC power play a crucial role in determining the efficiency level of the university. Furthermore, origin and gender of a VC will moderate the VC's power in influencing the efficiency level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding chief executive officers (CEOs) is important because of their vast influence on the strategies and performance of organizations. With the growth of family business research, new insights about family firm CEOs have emerged. However, knowledge about family firm CEOs is dispersed across an array of disciplines that take different perspectives. These differences have led to an inconsistent understanding of family firm CEOs, particularly since they can be family or nonfamily members with varying levels of willingness, ability, and capability to select and implement distinctive strategies. To better understand CEOs in family firms, we reviewed 175 articles published between 1984 and 2021 using upper echelons theory to capture the relationships among CEO characteristics, strategic choices, and firm performance. Our integrative review synthesizes findings from entrepreneurship, management, finance, economics, and other disciplines to provide insights and future research directions on CEO characteristics, strategic choices, and firm performance in family firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The significant influence of green human resource management (GHRM) on a firm's environmental performance (EP) has garnered considerable attention in recent literature. Research on GHRM has primarily focused on its impact on employee green behavior or outputs, neglecting its role as an organizational-level resource in facilitating the implementation of environmental strategy (ES). Additionally, limited attention has been paid to the influence of green consciousness (GC) of top managers on this process. Drawing on the resource-based view and upper echelons theory, this study employed a moderated mediation model to explore the relationships among ES, GHRM and GC of top managers. Data were collected from questionnaire responses of 476 senior executives from Chinese warehousing or logistics firms, gathered in three phases using a time-lagged approach. Results indicated that GHRM partially mediates the relationship between ES and EP. Additionally, it was found that GC of top managers moderates the relationship between ES and GHRM, acting as a boundary condition for the mediating effect of GHRM on EP. The study concludes with a discussion of several theoretical and practical implications arising from these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper incorporates individual digital literacy into corporate management practice to explore the relationship between managers' digital literacy and the performance of corporate green technology innovation. The results show that managers' digital literacy can contribute to corporate green technology innovation. Specifically, a greater degree of digital literacy among the top management team is associated with better performance in corporate green technology innovation. Even if the management does not have an educational background in core digital technologies, their work experience related to core digital technologies such as computers and information technology can help promote corporate green technology innovation in the later stage. There is the heterogeneity in the managers' digital literacy role in promoting corporate green technology innovation, which is more significant in the sample of regions with low levels of the digital economy development, sufficient media attention, and non-heavily polluting enterprises. Digital transformation plays a mediating role between managers' digital literacy and corporate green technology innovation. Through further research, we find that the improvement of managers' digital literacy can contribute to the enhancement of corporate value in the future. The conclusions enrich the research horizon of upper echelons theory, explore the value and differentiated effect of digital human capital in the new era, and provide empirical evidence at the micro level that digital technologies promote the green and sustainable development of the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the promotion of paternity leave by focusing on the role of female directors on boards. Drawing on insights from the literature on the upper echelons theory and strategic leadership, we argue that efforts to break gender stereotypes in upper‐echelon positions, particularly through female representation on boards, can promote paternity leave. Analyzing data from 633 Japanese firms between 2017 and 2021 with pooled regression models revealed that a high proportion of female directors promoted paternity leave. Additionally, it implied that the proportion of female department managers can strengthen the positive effects of female directors on paternity leave promotions. Our results contribute to the theory and practice of gender equality in organizations by providing implications for promoting crucial management practices that may be hindered by gender stereotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article selects companies listed on stock exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2011 to 2018 as samples and manually collects the overseas experience data of the executives of the sample companies to examine the influence of executives with overseas experience on the company's financial and investment decisions. This study shows that companies with the characteristics of executives with overseas experience make more investments, conduct more mergers and acquisitions, have higher debt ratios, and have more short-term debt. This is related to the fact that executives with overseas experience are more likely to show overconfidence than local executives. From the research point of view, the influence of executives with overseas experience who have both work and study experience ranks first. Compared with the separation of chairman and CEO, executives with overseas experience with dual identities are of great significance to financial and investment decisions. executives with overseas experience have more influence on private companies' financial and investment decisions than state-owned companies. The conclusion of this article highlights the importance of human capital and high-level characteristics to enterprise management and helps to provide a reference for Chinese enterprises in introducing overseas talents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study explored and compared the perceptions, attitudes, and motivations towards restaurant food waste mitigation among front-of-house (FOH) and back-of-house (BOH) restaurant managers. Semi-structured, one-on-one interviews were conducted with FOH (n = 6) and BOH (n = 7) managers at restaurants in the southeast of the United States. The findings indicated that the participants were highly aware of restaurant food waste and its contribution to food waste; furthermore, they displayed negative sentiments towards it. Additionally, most participants' awareness was heightened upon acquiring foodservice management positions. Cost reduction was found to be the primary motivation to reduce food waste among most participants; however, most BOH participants were highly motivated by an appreciation for and involvement with the food itself. Guided by the Upper Echelons Theory, the findings provide insight into the underlying cognitive base and values behind restaurant managers' perceptions, attitudes, and motivations towards restaurant food waste mitigation. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: Although research has explored how executive hubris shapes organizational actions, we theorize that hubris can also develop outside the executive suite. We introduce the construct organizational hubris, which we define as a durable, collective attitude marked by exaggerated pride and confidence in the organization. Organizational hubris differs from executive hubris in terms of level (individual versus collective) and target (self‐focused vs. organization‐focused). We argue that organizational hubris can develop among high‐identification organizations via an external route (positive external attributions) or an internal route (charismatic messaging from top leaders), or both. Once developed, organizational hubris affects important outcomes by shaping (1) how external stakeholders perceive the organization, (2) how insiders treat external stakeholders, and (3) the relationship among internal stakeholders—particularly between employees and top managers. Managerial Summary: Among the many stories of corporate excess, some organizations exhibit a sense of superiority—the view that success is inevitable and failure impossible—that can shape their very nature. In this article, we depart from the idea that hubris is confined to the C‐suite and introduce the construct organizational hubris, which we define as a durable, collective attitude marked by exaggerated pride and confidence in the organization. Organizational hubris can develop from positive external attributions and/or charismatic messaging from top leaders. Once developed, organizational hubris affects important strategic outcomes by shaping (1) how external stakeholders perceive the organization, (2) how insiders treat external stakeholders, and (3) the relationship among internal stakeholders—particularly between employees and top managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the effect of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) attributes on borrowing costs and the moderating role of the CEO's financial literacy on this relationship. We employed 2926 firm-year observations of non-financial firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange. We used ordinary least squares regression to test the hypotheses and further employed fixed effect analysis, generalized method of moments estimation and two-stage least squares analysis to resolve the possible endogeneity concerns. Our empirical results indicate that CEO age, tenure, ownership and gender are negatively associated with borrowing costs, whereas CEO duality is positively associated with borrowing costs. Furthermore, we report that a financially literate CEO strengthens the relationships in the cases of age, tenure, ownership and gender while it weakens the relationship in the case of CEO duality. Our results provide novel evidence in this context and extend empirical support to upper echelons theory in the case of an emerging economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As cybersecurity is a critical risk issue for organizations, cybersecurity disclosure is important for financial regulators, financial analysts, shareholders, and other stakeholders. Organizations face challenges when deciding whether, what, and when cybersecurity-related information should be disclosed. Prior studies have contributed few insights regarding the potential determinants of cybersecurity disclosure. Furthermore, their findings are based on a general or narrow measurement of this disclosure. This study draws on upper echelons and signaling theories to examine the association between various board of directors' characteristics and extent of overall cybersecurity disclosure and its individual aspects. Extent of cybersecurity disclosure is measured based on a content analysis of annual financial regulatory filings of the 250 companies listed on the S&P/TSX Composite Index, using a scoring grid of 40 items grouped into seven categories representing different aspects of cybersecurity disclosure. This expanded disclosure measurement provides original insights for firms and their stakeholders. The main findings indicate that the presence of a committee responsible for cybersecurity on the board of directors is key to increasing cybersecurity disclosure. With or without such a committee, board IT expertise, board tenure, board independence, women directors, and board age are associated with the extent of total cybersecurity disclosure or some of its specific aspects, particularly cybersecurity risk mitigation. These findings contribute to the cybersecurity literature by examining which board of directors' characteristics influence the extent of specific aspects of cybersecurity disclosure. They also complement results from upper echelons-based studies on corporate reporting determinants and prior IT governance studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to examine the effects of gender, foreign Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and impression management on water disclosure, with ownership as a moderating variable. The study uses unbalanced data from 1,329 firm-year observations spanning 2018–2022. The results showed that women, foreign CEO, and impression management, increased water disclosure. Meanwhile, ownership reduced the relationship between CEO characteristics and water disclosure. This research established a causal effect between the two variables, supporting the Upper Echelons Theory. The robustness of the results was checked by changing the regression model, water disclosure measurement, impact of COVID-19, lagged regression, and heckman two-stage.

In the past decade, there has been considerable scholarly focus on studying the characteristics of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and their influence on the financial performance of organizations. Nonetheless, a notable lacuna exists within the academic literature in the form of a comprehensive survey encompassing CEO characteristics and their nexus with financial performance. This study aims to furnish a cutting-edge synopsis of the academic discourse on CEO characteristics and corporate financial performance. To accomplish this, we employed a systematic approach involving the PRISMA protocol, VOSViewer, and R for an in-depth analysis. Our analytical framework relies on an extensive Scopus dataset spanning 2011 to 2023. 843 scholarly publications have been obtained from the aforementioned leading database. Our findings reveal a notable surge in research activity within this domain over the preceding 13 years, culminating in its zenith in 2023. This surge can be primarily ascribed to amplified avenues for scholarly dissemination and concerted scholarly endeavors, particularly in the United States and China. Furthermore, the robust support of academic institutions, coupled with prolific authorship, is seen as a significant catalyst for this burgeoning trend. In summary, this study synthesizes the previously fragmented literature and offers prospective avenues for future scholarly research.

This study examines whether CEO characteristics are potentially linked to firms' financial reporting behaviour, i.e. income smoothing behaviour. Using a unique hand-collected data set on CEO characteristics between 2008 and 2017 from U.K. firms, we find that firms with longer CEO tenure, run by CEOs with accounting or finance educational backgrounds, and those with female CEOs tend to engage in more income smoothing. Our results are robust to alternative measures of income smoothing and different estimation specifications. Our empirical evidence suggests that certain types of CEO characteristics play an important role in determining a firm's income-smoothing activities. Our study sheds light on how CEO characteristics extend to other aspects of corporate behaviour, in this case, firms' income smoothing behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study first investigates emission reduction targeting among polluting firms in the basic materials sector. We assess whether firms that produce a greater amount of carbon emissions are more likely to set emission reduction targets in the basic materials sector. Further, we test whether female directors are influential in moderating between emission reduction targeting and carbon emissions. The sample covers publicly traded firms in the basic materials sector listed in the Thomson Reuters Eikon database between 2010 and 2021. We perform country and year fixed effects regression analysis, as the firms in the sample are from diverse countries. We find that firms that produce more carbon emissions are more likely to set emission reduction targets and that female directors negatively moderate the relationship between emission reduction targeting and carbon emissions. Thus, firms with more female directors on their boards are more likely to reduce their carbon emissions via emission reduction targeting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of a team's personality faultlines on entrepreneurial performance. Additionally, this paper verifies the moderating effect of shared leadership on the connection between the two varies. The authors focus on the upper echelons theory and social identity theory as well as personality faultlines in entrepreneurial teams. Design/methodology/approach: An online survey was conducted using data collected in China. Data from 618 members from 144 new venture teams were collected to examine the authors' hypothesis. Findings: The authors find a U-shaped relationship between the strength of entrepreneurial teams' personality-faultline and entrepreneurial performance. Additionally, shared leadership negatively moderates this U-shaped relationship. Specifically, when the entrepreneurial team has a high level of shared leadership, both the positive and negative relationships between the strength of the personality faultlines and entrepreneurial performance are weaker. Originality/value: The research offers important theoretical and practical implications for the formation of entrepreneurial teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although recent, eco-innovations are increasingly adopted by businesses of all sizes including SMEs in the recycling industry. However, as compared to well-known barriers and obstacles to eco-innovate that are unique to recycling industry, the drivers or determinants are rarely explored. The focus of this study is to investigate socio-psychological drivers of eco-innovation through the combine lens of the upper echelon theory (UET), and firms internal/external factors. The empirical study was based on data obtained from 200 waste recycling entrepreneurs' founders and co-founders in Ghana who were winner of supporting entrepreneurs for environment and development (SEED) Award from 2010 to 2019. With the implementation of a regression analysis technique, the estimation effects of multiple variables on eco-innovation was made possible. The results confirm the positive effect of regulation and market opportunity on the environmental innovation of SMEs along with two other determinants that are essential for promoting eco-innovation in the startup including; (1) top executive's self-efficacy, level of education, and experience that reflect the socio-psychological cognitive base toward pro-environmental behavior and (2) the firm's sustainability identity. The study is first to focus on the subjective drivers perceived by SMEs top executive in waste recycling to eco-innovation and to reveal their specificities compared to other industries. Therefore, these findings can serve as a basis for identifying individual-level characteristics crucial in supporting eco-innovation performance in the waste recycling sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environmental crisis is one of global society's most extreme grand challenges. One of the supply‐side factors that can help cope with it is corporate environmental innovation. Based on the upper echelon and value belief theory and with significant empirical analyses, our results strongly support that the presence of women on the board positively impacts innovation aimed at environmental sustainability. The results are based on a sample of 19,800 firm‐year observations of 2966 unique firms in 54 industry groups domiciled in 52 countries for the 2003–2019 period. The global distribution of the firms means that the sample is diverse enough to examine our main hypotheses. In addition, we show that culturally masculine societies, as captured by their grammatical gender marking, have a negative impact on such innovation. The masculine culture also moderates the impact of gender board diversity on innovation for environmental sustainability. Our results are robust to a battery of empirical tests and definitions, including instrumental variable approach and propensity score matching causality tests. We further explored firms' attitudes toward innovation for environmental sustainability by adding a qualitative case study research design to our quantitative analysis. That was based on semi‐structured interviews with board members and executives. The case studies provided additional support to the results in the quantitative analysis part. This study's empirical results have various broad theoretical and practical implications for board composition, taking into account the linguistic environment of the firm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the relationship between chief executive officers (CEOs) and the board of directors in the context of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. Based on a multi‐theoretical approach, it examines whether dynamic CEO capabilities (DCCs) facilitate ESG performance by enabling capable CEOs to navigate complex stakeholder expectations effectively. Additionally, the impact of board gender diversity (BGD) on this relationship is tested, given its significance for ESG‐related decision‐making. Longitudinal analysis of S&P 900 manufacturing firms demonstrates that strong DCCs positively influence ESG performance, supporting dynamic managerial capabilities and upper echelons theories within the institutional and shareholder theory frameworks. The findings also corroborate that BGD has a moderating effect, initially strengthening the DCC–ESG relationship, in line with gender socialization and diversity theories. However, the study reveals a threshold effect, where ESG benefits from DCCs diminish once BGD reaches approximately 35%, providing a new perspective on critical mass theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation is one of the crucial drivers that stimulates firms toward Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but successful innovation comes with high uncertainty since innovation involves large capital expenditures and complex processes. The characteristics of the board of directors (BOD) influence their perceptions, preferences, and interpretation which affect their decision‐making and firm outcomes. This study emphasizes the relationship between female directors and corporate innovation. We use text‐based measures of innovation (TBI) to capture innovation investment. The fixed‐effects regression results suggest that female directors reduce the innovation investment level of the firm. The empirical results are tested for robustness using a two‐stage least square instrumental variables (2SLS‐IV) analysis and a two‐step system generalized method of moment (GMM) panel estimator. The latter supports the initial results and aligns with the Upper Echelons Theory (UET), where the characteristics of the BOD determine the organizational outcomes. The findings conclude that female directors influence the decision outcomes of the BOD toward risk‐neutral, which lowers innovation investments while maintaining the firm profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of entrepreneur attributes on financing channels of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as the moderating role of firm age on this relationship. It examines a comprehensive dataset of 4139 firm‐year observations operating in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region observed over the 2013–2019 period. The results are four‐fold. First, our overall findings reveal that experienced entrepreneurs tend to use internal funds. Second, the university education of entrepreneurs positively correlates with debt financing. Third, female entrepreneurs are more eager to use internal funds and less debt. Fourth, firm age is found to moderate these relationships. Indeed, in young SMEs, experienced entrepreneurs are shown to rely on debt, graduated entrepreneurs on internal funds, and in older SMEs, female entrepreneurs use debt. Our results bear on the proposals of upper echelons and organizational lifecycle theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earnings management decisions and ineffective monitoring activities have contributed to financial accounting scandals and reduced confidence in firms' reporting quality among potential investors, lenders and other creditors. The implementation of an effective top management team (TMT) is considered essential in this context. It is well known that top managers have considerable discretion over firms' financial reporting since they choose whether and how to manage earnings. However, research has yet to establish the relationship between top managers' diversity attributes and firms' earnings management levels. Therefore, this study analyses whether and how top managers' nationality, gender and age diversity are associated with accounting quality. Based on a sample of German DAX 30 listed firms from 2011 to 2018, we found that diversity in TMT nationality and gender have a positive impact on accounting quality. This relationship is context-dependent and negatively moderated by the tenure of the chief financial officer. Our findings provide novel insights on accounting quality for practitioners such as investors, regulators and stock corporations. The implications of this study further advance the academic debate on diversity in TMTs and its effects on earnings management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We used regression analysis to examine the direct and interaction effects of CEO academic experience and CEO duality on digital transformation in order to explain why firms vary in their digital transformation. Data analysis of manufacturing firms listed on the A-share market of the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2007 to 2022 reveals that both academic experience and duality have significant positive direct effects on digital transformation. Both variables also mutually interact to promote digital transformation. This study not only makes an important contribution to the research on digital transformation and upper echelons theory but also provides useful guidance for firms developing their digitization strategy.

With environmental sustainability gaining significance, firms require green leadership to drive the adoption of eco-innovations through appropriate culture-building. This quantitative study uses upper echelons theory to analyze green innovation levels in Vietnamese small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and to assess intermediary mechanisms that transmit strategic leaders’ influence. Results of partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) provide strong empirical support for the hypotheses that environmental knowledge sharing practices mediate the impact of green leadership behaviors on higher performance in green product and process innovation. Specifically, knowledge exchange through cross-functional collaborations and external partnerships explains the effect of leadership. Findings respond to calls for research on green innovation drivers in emerging markets such as Vietnam, where institutional pressures for ecological responsibility remain underdeveloped. Furthermore, identifying actionable transmission mechanisms informs policy guidelines regarding interventions necessary to nurture sustainable innovation. This study offers multi-level theoretical and practical contributions.

Most researchers focus on the effect of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) on investor returns and overlook customer reactions, despite the fact that customers are directly impacted by these corporate transformations. Others suggest that in M&A contexts, a dual emphasis of customer satisfaction and firm efficiency is both likely and beneficial. In contrast, the authors demonstrate that M&As not only do not yield a dual emphasis but also cause a decline in customer satisfaction to the extent that they eclipse any gain in firm value from an increase in firm efficiency. A quasiexperimental difference-in-differences analysis and an instrumental variable panel regression provide robust evidence for the dark side of M&As for customers. The authors use the attention-based view of the firm to demonstrate that post-M&A customer dissatisfaction occurs because of a shift in executive attention away from customers and toward financial issues. In line with the related upper echelons theory, they find that marketing representation on a firm's board of directors helps maintain executive attention on customers, which mitigates the dysfunctional effect of M&As on customer satisfaction. This research identifies a negative M&A–customer satisfaction relationship and highlights executive attention to customer issues and marketing leadership as factors that mitigate this negative relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the upper echelons theory, this paper uses an empirical study to examine the impact of CEO narcissism on M&A decisions and the moderating effects of media attention and CEO equity incentives. In order to further explore the relationship and mechanism between CEO narcissism and M & A behavior of listed companies in China, this paper uses the size of CEO signature to measure the degree of CEO narcissism and uses the data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2020 for analysis. The results show that CEO narcissism has a significant positive effect on firm M&A decisions; media attention plays a positive moderating role between CEO narcissism and M&A decisions; and the positive effect of CEO narcissism on M&A decisions is more significant when the CEO owns shares of the firm. The existing literature rarely considers media attention and equity incentives as factors influencing the relationship between CEO narcissism and M&A decisions. This paper creatively analyzes the moderating role of media attention and equity incentives, thus broadening the scope of research on CEO narcissism. The findings of this paper establish a better theoretical and practical understanding for a more comprehensive study of how CEO narcissistic personality affects a firm's M&A behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article is to investigate the influence of CEO narcissistic personality traits on the indebtedness of Brazilian non-financial companies listed on the B3. Other research on narcissistic traits has focused on their impact on the profitability of organizations. Thus, this study aims to fill the gap in understanding the impact of CEO narcissistic traits on companies' debt decisions and their determinants by including a psychological characteristic. This research is relevant because it helps academics, business professionals and policymakers to identify patterns and trends that could warn of possible financial crises. The impact of this article is related to the evidence on the effects of hiring narcissistic CEOs on indebtedness, since understanding the interaction between the CEO's profile and the company's financial decisions can provide practical guidelines for risk management and informed decision making, thus contributing to the field of business strategy and corporate finance. A sample of 299 non-financial companies was analyzed from 2011 to 2020, using data from the Economática database, annual reports, integrated reports, sustainability reports and management reports. Two proxies were used to measure narcissistic personality traits, based on the CEO's signature and the prominence of his or her photo. Indebtedness was measured by the following indicators: onerous, total, short-term and long-term debt. The results show that the greater the narcissistic traits of the CEOs, the greater the indebtedness of the organizations. This contributes to a deeper understanding of the factors that influence companies' financial decisions, since identifying the factors that lead to risky debt decisions can enable the implementation of preventive measures and more effective risk management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the association between Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) overconfidence and conditional accounting conservatism. Relying on upper echelons and overconfidence theories and based on a large sample of US-listed firms' data from 1992 to 2019 (21,626 firm-year observations), we find a statistically and economically significant negative relationship between CFO overconfidence and conditional accounting conservatism, suggesting that overconfident CFOs tend to diminish conditional accounting conservatism. These findings persist in a series of robustness tests. In the mechanism analysis, we predict that overconfident CFOs aim to convey private information by reducing conditional accounting conservatism. We prove this conjecture by observing that overconfident CFOs who adopt lower levels of conditional accounting conservatism increase earnings informativeness (i.e., the amount of information about future cash flows or earnings contained in current stock returns) and reduce their precautionary incentives to save cash. We further rule out another mechanism (i.e. compensation concerns) that may motivate overconfident CFOs to reduce conditional accounting conservatism. Moreover, we show that overconfident CFOs with higher powers are more able to minimize conditional accounting conservatism. Our study highlights the significance and motivation of overconfident CFOs in determining asymmetric recognition of good and bad news. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study draws on the upper echelons theory to examine the nature of the relationship between top management team (TMT) tenure and a firm's level of entrepreneurial orientation (EO). We find evidence of an inverted-U relationship between TMT tenure and EO using data from firms across three industries with varied industry dynamics. We further introduce a contingency element by demonstrating that TMT industry background heterogeneity moderates the relationship between TMT tenure and EO, where the inverted U-shaped relationship will be more pronounced when the heterogeneity is low and will flatten when the heterogeneity is high. The findings demonstrate the complexity CEOs and governing bodies face while shaping a diverse TMT that can affect EO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by the limited attention given to the impact of top management teams on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this study sets out to identify the extent to which companies engage in SDG reporting and assess the impact of top management team diversity on SDG reporting based on the upper echelons theory. The data were collected by analyzing the sustainability reports of the listed entities over a three‐year period and conducting semistructured interviews. Findings show that the average disclosures related to SDGs are still at a deficient level and that top management team diversity does not have an impact on SDG reporting in Sri Lankan companies. The qualitative evidence shows that the existing corporate sustainability strategies have been aligned with SDGs, rather than being reformulated or designed to integrate with the SDG targets. Hence, in Sri Lanka, SDG reporting is limited by the superficial attention given to them in corporate strategies. This is a pioneering study that investigates the relationship between top management team diversity and SDG reporting using an explanatory sequential approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: Several upper echelons studies have found that firms led by female executives are less likely to engage in risky endeavors than those led by male top executives. We argue that conceptualizing female CEOs as universally conservative decision‐makers may paint too simplistic a picture and that the impact of CEO gender on strategic decision‐making may vary significantly depending on the given situation CEOs are experiencing. We integrate executive job demands and gender research to propose that scrutiny will exhibit differential effects on female and male CEOs' acquisition activity. We show that in high‐scrutiny contexts, the difference between male and female CEO acquisition activity disappears. In contrast, in low‐scrutiny contexts, the difference between male and female CEOs' acquisition activity is exaggerated. Managerial Summary: Substantial research has shown that female executives acquire at a lower rate than male executives. We argue that viewing female CEOs as universally conservative decision‐makers may paint too simplistic a picture and that the impact of CEO gender on strategic decision‐making may vary significantly depending on the given situation CEOs are experiencing. In particular, we argue and find that in high‐scrutiny contexts, the difference between male and female CEO acquisition activity disappears. This research suggests that managers should consider the impact of environmental context—especially the role of scrutiny—when considering the risk propensity of female leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The objective of this article is to investigate the influence of CEO narcissistic personality traits on the indebtedness of Brazilian non-financial companies listed on the B3. Other research on narcissistic traits has focused on their impact on the profitability of organizations. Thus, this study aims to fill the gap in understanding the impact of CEO narcissistic traits on companies' debt decisions and their determinants by including a psychological characteristic. This research is relevant because it helps academics, business professionals and policymakers to identify patterns and trends that could warn of possible financial crises. The impact of this article is related to the evidence on the effects of hiring narcissistic CEOs on indebtedness, since understanding the interaction between the CEO's profile and the company's financial decisions can provide practical guidelines for risk management and informed decision making, thus contributing to the field of business strategy and corporate finance. A sample of 299 non-financial companies was analyzed from 2011 to 2020, using data from the Economática database, annual reports, integrated reports, sustainability reports and management reports. Two proxies were used to measure narcissistic personality traits, based on the CEO's signature and the prominence of his or her photo. Indebtedness was measured by the following indicators: onerous, total, short-term and long-term debt. The results show that the greater the narcissistic traits of the CEOs, the greater the indebtedness of the organizations. This contributes to a deeper understanding of the factors that influence companies' financial decisions, since identifying the factors that lead to risky debt decisions can enable the implementation of preventive measures and more effective risk management strategies.

This paper applies upper echelons theory to investigate whether chief information officers (CIOs) and boards of directors affect the development of AI orientation, which represents firms' overall strategic direction and goals regarding the introduction and application of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. We tested our model using a dataset drawn from 1,454 publicly listed firms in China. Our findings show that the presence of a CIO positively influences AI orientation and that board educational diversity, R&D experience, and AI experience positively moderate the CIO's effect on AI orientation. Our post hoc analysis further demonstrates that these board characteristics represent contingencies that impact AI orientation but not conventional IT orientation. This paper contributes to the upper echelons literature and IT management research by offering contextualized arguments that explain new business and IT strategies such as AI orientation. Further, our findings suggest important implications about how to build top management teams and boards capable of effectively developing AI orientations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]