Dissertations & Theseshttp://hdl.handle.net/10106/251972024-03-29T12:31:28Z2024-03-29T12:31:28ZThe Role Internal Stakeholders Play in Innovation in Large Corporationshttp://hdl.handle.net/10106/317222023-11-09T22:51:16Z2023-08-21T00:00:00ZThe Role Internal Stakeholders Play in Innovation in Large Corporations
Despite the vast existing literature on innovation, the investigation of work conditions that support the generation of ideas to feed the innovative process remains elusive. Holding the assumption that the entire organization is responsible for innovation, not only a specific department or set of experts, I aim to investigate the role two internal stakeholders play in innovation – employees and CEO. I empirically examine the relationship between voice climate – or the workforce perception about its participation in current discussions with ideas, suggestions, and thoughts - and explorative and exploitative innovation. Further, I consider the impact of CEO attributes (origin – insider versus outsider and duality) on developing a climate that promotes employee voice. Using secondary data from firms listed in the Fortune 500 publication, I expect to contribute to (1) innovation literature identifying the impact of voice climate on the firm’s breakthrough and incremental knowledge base, (2) to upper echelons and agency theories by assessing to what extent CEO characteristics (origin and duality) impacts exploitative and explorative innovation through voice climate, and (3) to organizational voice studies by assessing the influence of voice climate on organizational outcomes. This study finds support for the relationship between voice climate and exploitative innovation. Thus, as voice climate increases, employees will be willing to express their ideas, suggestions, and thoughts regarding work-related issues, which leads to incremental innovation. The results also show that CEOs are important actors in building (or destroying) voice climates.
2023-08-21T00:00:00ZStakeholder-Specific Reputation and Organizational Performance: Comparing the Effects of Overall and Employer Reputationhttp://hdl.handle.net/10106/316792023-11-09T22:59:55ZStakeholder-Specific Reputation and Organizational Performance: Comparing the Effects of Overall and Employer Reputation
Corporate reputation scholars largely agree that reputation is an asset related to the competitive advantage of firms. However, there is far from universal agreement about whether corporate reputation is best characterized as a single, global assessment that is common to all stakeholders, or as many assessments made by different stakeholder groups. Scholars developing corporate reputation theory have recently focused on the idiosyncratic expectations of different stakeholders, and the consequences of meeting or failing to meet those expectations. This dissertation extends this analysis to employee stakeholders by drawing on social exchange and instrumental stakeholder theory frameworks to develop hypotheses around 1.) the differential effects of employer versus overall reputation on organizational outcomes and 2.) potential consequences for organizations that have different levels of employer and overall reputation. I use labor productivity as a more direct outcome associated with supportive employee behavior and financial returns as a more distal outcome. Further, I build theory on the moderating conditions of these effects across industries that differ in terms of capital intensity, research and development intensity, and advertising intensity. My contribution lies in testing theory that reputation's value as an asset depends on how it addresses stakeholders' concerns, which vary according to their unique relationship with the organization, and in testing moderating industry conditions of this theory. This paper uses a common data source to represent overall reputation (Fortune's Most Admired Companies) and secondary data in the form of online reviews to represent employer reputation (Glassdoor.com). I find support for the idea that overall and employer reputation are distinct constructs with unique effects on labor productivity and financial returns. I also find some support for my theory that the effects of employer and overall reputation depend on each other. The implications of these findings for the research literature on organizational reputation are discussed along with the managerial importance of employer reputation.
THE EFFECT OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE ON THE CHANGE IN MARKET VALUATION OF CORPORATE SPIN-OFFS: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF SPUN-OFF SUBSIDIARIEShttp://hdl.handle.net/10106/316672023-11-09T23:02:09ZTHE EFFECT OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE ON THE CHANGE IN MARKET VALUATION OF CORPORATE SPIN-OFFS: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF SPUN-OFF SUBSIDIARIES
This dissertation focuses on the change in market valuation of spun-off subsidiaries two years after the corporate spin-off. A review of the literature indicates that the research pertaining to determinants of the market valuation following corporate spin-offs from the perspective of spun-off subsidiaries has been limited. While the extensive corporate governance literature indicates that different governance structures of the firm have diverse implications on the choice of firm strategies and associated performance, our knowledge of how these governance elements might impact the change in market valuation of spun-off subsidiaries is virtually nonexistent. Grounded in agency, resource dependence, and upper echelons theories, this research examines how board characteristics, CEO characteristics, and ownership structures impact the change in market valuation of the spun-off subsidiary (child firm), which is assessed by the change in market value of equity within two years following the corporate separation of the child from its divesting (parent) firm.
The study is based on 138 completed corporate spin-offs undertaken in the U.S. between 2000 and 2014, identified using the SDC Platinum database. My results indicate that the board size and CEO duality have significant positive effects on the change in market valuation of the child firm whereas the CEO age and managerial ownership have significant negative effects on this relationship. On the other side, the board average age, CEO origin, board independence, institutional ownership, and board members’ and CEOs’ external directorships do not show any significant effects on the change in market valuation of the child firm.
Regarding research contributions, this study is grounded in three established theories —agency, resource dependence, and upper echelons — to explain an important phenomenon of the change in market valuation of the child firm following the spin-off. Secondly, the study demonstrates critical effects of the corporate governance structure, including board and CEO characteristics as well as ownership structures on the change in post-spin-off market valuation from the perspective of the child firm. Thirdly, the study uses the market value of equity to assess the market valuation, which provides important cues regarding investor perceptions of the child firm’s business prospects.
Concerning managerial implications, this study indicates that larger boards, younger CEOs, and the CEO and chairman of the board being the same person all help to improve the child firm’s market valuation. On the opposite side, a large number of shares owned by managers will negatively affect the market valuation of the child firm. These results can be considered critical key points for establishing an effective governance structure at the child firm.
CEO CHARACTERISTICS, INDUSTRY 4.0 CAPABILITIES, AND FIRM PERFORMANCEhttp://hdl.handle.net/10106/314442023-07-01T08:26:43Z2022-08-11T00:00:00ZCEO CHARACTERISTICS, INDUSTRY 4.0 CAPABILITIES, AND FIRM PERFORMANCE
**Please note that the full text is embargoed until 8/6/2024** ABSTRACT: Industry 4.0 has received significant attention from academia and industry in the last decade. Despite its growing popularity, this area is relatively understudied. There is a lack of thorough understanding of the disparate thematic areas under the umbrella term "Industry 4.0" in the literature.
My first essay aims to elucidate the intellectual structure of Industry 4.0 publications using: (a) bibliometric techniques; and (b) topic modeling. The synthesized analyses unraveled diverse themes of Industry 4.0 and deepened our understanding of academic research on Industry 4.0. Such an understanding is important to identify opportunities to advance the boundaries of scholarship on Industry 4.0.
The purpose of the second essay is threefold. First, I conceptualized and developed a novel measure, ‘Industry 4.0 Capability Index’, using machine learning and text analytics to assess Industry 4.0 and the digital innovation capabilities of companies. Second, I investigated the influence of CEO demographics, such as CEO age and gender, on a firm’s Industry 4.0 capabilities. I found that the CEO age has a negative and statistically significant relationship with Industry 4.0 Capability Index. Finally, I examined the impact of advanced Industry 4.0 capabilities of firms on their financial performance. Our results suggest that Industry 4.0 and the digital capabilities of firms have a positive and statistically significant impact on their financial performance. This study makes significant contributions to the literature on CEO characteristics, Industry 4.0, and innovation. This study is among the first to derive a measure of Industry 4.0 and the digitalization capabilities of organizations using machine learning algorithms and text analytics. Our findings provide invaluable insights for academics and practitioners alike.
2022-08-11T00:00:00Z