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This study aims to investigate the impact of top management team (TMT)'s gender diversity on corporate social performance (CSP). It sheds light on inconsistent results in literature by testing the moderator effects of chief executive officer (CEO) managerial ability and corporate governance (CG) on such impact.

A dynamic panel estimator is applied to an international sample of 8640 firm‐year observations from 2013 to 2017.

The author finds reliable evidence that the critical mass of at least three women leaders has a positive impact on the firm's CSP. Obtained results suggest, moreover, the deterrence effects of CEO managerial ability and CG tools (board independence, board gender diversity, the presence of a corporate social responsibility committee and family control) on the women leaders' contribution to the firm's CSP level. These results remain consistent with alternative measures for women leaders and CEO managerial ability. However, findings are lost when women achieve the CEO position, the chairperson position or both positions, which imply that men and women leadership styles are closely similar rather than different. Furthermore, women leaders' effect on CSP seems dependent (do not) on the country (industry) which a firm belongs to.

From a practical standpoint, the study highlights the importance of fostering the achievement of a critical mass of women leaders and the combination of CEO managerial ability – educational/professional backgrounds – and CG attributes to improve the firm's CSP. The study has important implications for investors and regulators. If investors wish to increase CSP, they should ask for more gender diversified TMTs. Furthermore, this study supports regulators in their efforts to increase senior women's quotas by providing empirical evidence of better social outcomes under leader gender diversity. The study’s evidence is also useful for companies in setting the criteria to identify CEOs who can support their strategic decisions.

By studying the impact female leaders have on CSP under CEO managerial ability and CG as moderators, this study is the first to display complementarities and substitutions between CEO's managerial ability and selected CG attributes in the promotion of CSP by female senior executives. Furthermore, it fills the void on how TMT's gender diversity impact CSP. In fact, while it is conventionally considered that women are more likely to engage in socially responsible activities, sensitive findings of this study shed light on the brighter side of female executives when they achieve the CEO, the chairperson position or both positions.

Internal audit executives instruct the internal audit department to supervise corporate business management activities, evaluate internal controls and risks and provide recommendations for operating. Therefore, this paper aims to confirm whether and how the supervisory ability of the chief internal audit executive enhances the internal audit department’s function to prevent corporate fraud. Based on the results, this paper further researches the role of the supervisory board position in this relationship.

This paper examines 922 small and medium-sized listed enterprises in China from 2010 to 2017 and empirically investigates the influence of the internal audit executive’s supervisory ability (IAESA) on the occurrence of corporate fraud.

The results reveal that the IAESA is significantly negatively correlated with the occurrence of corporate fraud. This suppression effect is more pronounced when the internal audit executive is also the company’s supervisor. However, if the internal audit executive is the chairman of the board of supervisors, the suppression effect no longer exists. This paper therefore confirms that the IAESA curbs corporate fraud via the improvement of the internal corporate control level.

Because the sample data was limited by the information disclosure level of the included companies, the sample size was relatively small as compared with those of other studies.

This study not only expands the research perspective in the field of internal audit functions but also provides a decision-making reference for the prevention of corporate fraud.

This paper extends an approach that might be able to curb corporate fraud.

A comprehensive index was developed using data envelope analysis to quantify the supervisory ability of internal audit executives. Based on this, this research confirms that the internal audit department performs a “firewall function” to prevent corporate fraud.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the content of for‐profit organizations' Facebook pages and how the communication strategy employed impacts stakeholders' perceptions of the organization‐public relationship, corporate social responsibility, attitudes, and purchase intent.

For Study 1, a content analysis examined the types of information on for‐profit organizations' Facebook pages. Facebook pages were coded for organizational disclosure and information dissemination, corporate social responsibility information, and interactivity. Pages were also coded for using a corporate ability, corporate social responsibility, or hybrid communication strategy. Three organizations were then selected based on the content analysis results to serve as exemplars in the two‐phase experiment. Participants filled out measures of initial attitudes, perceptions of the organization‐public relationship, corporate social responsibility, and purchase intent. A week later, participants interacted with the organizations' Facebook pages and then answered additional scale measures.

Study 1 found for‐profit organizations discuss program/services, achievements, and awards on their Facebook pages. The main communication strategy employed on Facebook is corporate ability. Study 2 results indicate interacting with Facebook pages bolsters stakeholders' perceptions of the organization‐public relationship, corporate social responsibility, and purchase intent. The organization employing a corporate social responsibility communication strategy had the most success bolstering these variables.

Several of the organizations did not have Facebook pages to code for the content analysis. Some organizations' pages were not coded because the page was just starting and there was no information available. The content analysis included a small sample size (n=114) which impacted the experiment. It limited the number of organizations that could be employed in the experimental conditions.

When posting information on Facebook, organizations should employ the corporate social responsibility communication strategy. However, regardless of the strategy employed, interacting with Facebook information can bolster stakeholders' perceptions of organizational‐public relationships, corporate social responsibility, attitudes, and purchase intent.

The paper adds to the experimental literature. There is very limited experimental research examining the impact of Facebook on stakeholders. It provides practitioners with some guidance on the types of communication strategy they should employ when posting on Facebook.

This study investigates the impact of managerial ability and auditor report readability on the cost of debt and corporate liquidity in Omani-listed industrial companies.

The study uses data from the S&P Capital IQ database and audited annual reports published on Muscat Securities Market. The sample consists of 35 firms (175 firm-year observations) from 2015 to 2019. Managerial ability is measured using the data envelopment analysis proposed by Demerjian et al. (2012a, b). Auditor report readability is measured as a log of the auditor report digital file size proposed by Loughran and McDonald (2014).

This study finds that a company's managerial ability reduces the cost of debt lending support to upper echelons and agency theory. Highly able managers of industrial companies are associated with increased corporate liquidity consistent with the precautionary motive of holding cash. In addition, less-readable auditor reports contribute to higher debt costs and reduce corporate liquidity.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, few studies have explored the influence of managerial ability and auditor reporting readability on firms' financial policy. For industrial-sector firms, this study demonstrates the managerial ability and readability of auditor readability as significant determinants of the cost of debt and corporate liquidity, especially during periods of uncertainty. Thus, the findings can be generalized to other non-financial sector firms in the country and the Middle East.

While the determinants of voluntary political spending disclosure have been extensively studied in the literature, there remains a lack of clear evidence regarding the specific impacts of managerial ability and political risk on such disclosure. Thus, the purpose of this study is to shed light on whether and how managerial ability and political risk influence firms’ political spending disclosure.

This study uses a sample of 2,242 firm-year observations of S&P 500 companies between 2013 and 2021.

This study finds that firms with high-ability managers generally disclose more information about political spending. This positive relationship between managerial ability and political spending disclosure holds even after conducting additional tests to address potential endogeneity concerns. Furthermore, this study finds that firms operating in high-risk political environments also exhibit a greater propensity to disclose information regarding their political spending. The results remain robust to alternative measures of managerial ability and political risk.

This study suggests that when designing policy to motivate firms to disclose political spending information, policy makers need to be aware of the critical role of managerial ability and idiosyncratic political risk the firm faces. In addition, this study offers insights to shareholders, advocacy groups, regulators and academics interested in understanding the determinants of political spending disclosure.

This study is among the first to provide empirical evidence that political spending disclosure can be explained by managerial ability and political risk. In addition, this study complements the literature on the consequences of managerial ability and political risk. Focusing on voluntary political spending disclosure, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of the factors shaping the overall corporate information environment.

In weaker institutions, lack of corporate social responsibility (CSR) constituencies causes organizations to naturally incline toward corporate socially irresponsible actions. Grounded in the institutional theory, this paper aims to explore the nature of corporate social irresponsibility (CSIR) in the weaker institution and its effect on legitimacy and reputation. The presence of corporate ability moderates the impact of CSIR on legitimacy and reputation.

A list of manager’s contact information was generated from an online database. In total, 1,500 employees in 560 Pakistani organizations received the self-reported survey. In total, 203 managers working in 110 Pakistani organizations responded with the completed questionnaire that provided empirical support to the hypotheses.

Institutional drivers were positively significant to CSIR and negatively associated with the manager’s CSR attitudes. CSIR was negatively significant to legitimacy and reputation. Group differences between high and low corporate ability indicated that corporate ability played a vital role between CSIR and reputation.

These results have important implications for leaders, business-to-business and human resource (HR) managers in weaker institutions highlighting that organization’s supply chain partners consider adopting CSR practices. This can help the organization avoid undesirable and detrimental impact on its legitimacy and reputation, which are linked to irresponsible behaviors. HR managers should build CSR cognition in employees to bring effective change in the organization.

Lack of investigation into corporate ability and CSIR has raised questions about the organization’s efforts in the weaker institution that are sensitive to institutionalized corruption. This research adds to the literature by exploring how the organizations develop legitimacy and reputation while still acting irresponsibly in a weaker institution, presenting a paradox.

Although consumers’ tendency to support domestic companies by buying local products is growing, few studies discuss the corporate branding for domestic brands. This study aims to help domestic brands develop corporate branding strategies by examining the effects of corporate image of domestic brands on customers’ purchase intentions.

This study investigates various aspects of corporate image, including product quality, corporate ability, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and local-customer-first (a measure that is identified in this study). It conducts a survey (N = 283) and tests eight hypotheses with bivariate regression analyses with SPSS, Hayes’ PROCESS macro and structural equation modelling with AMOS to identify significant relationships.

The results show that all aspects of corporate image have significant positive effects on customers’ purchase intentions towards domestic brands. However, the effect of CSR image on purchase intention is fully mediated by the corporate ability and product quality images, whereas consumer ethnocentrism moderates the corporate ability and local-customer-first images.

This study contributes to the literature by examining the effect of corporate image on customers’ domestic brand purchase intentions in emerging economies when the product quality image in the country is low. This study also identifies a new factor, local-customer-first, and its positive effect on purchase intention. It is recommended that domestic brands strengthen their CSR, corporate ability and local-customer-first images to gain local customers’ support. Furthermore, it is found that corporate ability and local-customer-first are more highly valued by ethnocentric consumers. These findings can help domestic brands develop corporate branding strategies.

The aim of this paper is to examine how managerial ability affects corporate tax aggressiveness.

The study follows the work of Demerjian, Lev, and McVay (2012) and quantifies managerial ability by calculating how efficiently managers generate revenues from given economic resources using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach. The study uses a wide range of measures of tax aggressiveness. Firm fixed-effects regressions and a difference-in-differences approach using information regarding CEO turnover to control for endogeneity are used.

The study finds a negative relationship between managerial ability and corporate tax aggressiveness. Further tests show that this negative relationship is more pronounced for firms with higher investment opportunities or firms with more reputational concerns.

Given the significant costs associated with tax aggressiveness and the negative effect it can have on managerial reputation if discovered, the results suggest that more able managers invest less effort in aggressive tax avoidance activities. This study furthers the understanding of how managerial personal traits affect corporate decision-making.

The recent rise of economic nationalism intensifies consumers' patriotic attitudes toward goods or services and thus encourages enterprises to build patriotic brand images. Nevertheless, few studies have discussed how a patriotic brand image is developed. The purpose of this study aims to fill the gap by examining whether and how a positive corporate image helps a domestic brand establish a patriotic brand image and in turn enhances consumers' purchase intentions in relation to domestic brand products.

A research model identifying the antecedents of patriotic brand image (the components of corporate image) is proposed and empirically tested using structural equations with a questionnaire investigating Taiwanese college students' attitudes toward Taiwanese smartphone brands. Three competing models are also proposed and tested to confirm the appropriateness of the research model.

In addition to the widely recognized impact of perceived quality on purchase intentions, patriotic brand image is found to be effective in enhancing local consumers' intentions to purchase domestic brand products. To shape a patriotic brand image, perceived quality, perceived corporate ability and perceived corporate integrity are the direct approaches, while perceived corporate social responsibility works through perceived corporate integrity, and perceived employer brand enhances only perceived corporate social responsibility.

Potential sampling (college students) and subject (smartphones) biases may limit the generalizability of the presented findings

While patriotic appeals have long been used in marketing communication, they are also likely to precipitate negative brand associations (e.g. nationalism), offending consumers in other countries. By contrast, the development of a positive corporate image serves as an implicit and neutral approach to building a patriotic brand image and can help domestic brands attract local consumers with less harm to foreign markets.

This study is one of notably few studies discussing patriotic brand image and its impacts on purchase intentions. This study also identifies the antecedents of patriotic brand image and how each of them affects patriotic brand image. The findings can help guide domestic brands in building a patriotic brand image.

While managers and researchers recognize that corporate social responsibility is positively related to some corporate performance measures, the instrumental reason for this linkage is still unclear. The present research proposes that this relationship can be better understood if the concept of trustworthiness is included.

Using an experimental design, the present research presents a study in which the presence or absence of environmental commitment information in a company profile is manipulated and presented to consumers, and reports the differences in the measures of consumers' perceptions of company trustworthiness and its sources originated by this manipulation. The analysis of these differences provided evidence of significant positive effects on perceived benevolence and negative effects on perceived ability measures.

The findings of the present research seem to indicate that, in some contexts, companies' cause commitment can have different (positive and negative) effects on consumers' perception of firms' trustworthiness.

The small sample size is the principal limitation of the study. Also the exclusion of personal and cultural values as moderators of the effects is a limitation. Therefore, results should be analyzed carefully because they could vary if the study is replicated in a different culture. Future research should include these personal and cultural variables in a more comprehensive model.

Managers must manage carefully this type of company commitment and the communication of these corporate activities to stakeholders.

This paper tries to analyze from the individual behavior perspective the relationship between corporate social responsibility and corporate trustworthiness.