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Organizational researchers have long recognized the important role that top managers play within entrepreneurial firms (Ireland, Hitt and Sirmon 2003). Utilizing Covin and Slevin’s (1989) conceptual framework, the current study explores three key entrepreneurial characteristics of top managers and the impact these characteristics have on firm performance. Specifically, we argue that top managers with a high tolerance of risk, those who favor innovative activities and those who display a high degree of proactiveness will positively impact firm performance. In addition, this study examines the influence of top managers’ prestige, structural and expert power on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance. We conclude the study with a discussion of theoretical and practical implications of our findings and suggestions for future research in this area of study.

Many researchers and executives have viewed fit as a key to organizational survival and high performance (Summer et al., 1990). However, the type of fit and how it can be best achieved may often be in question (Venkataraman, 1989). The current study empirically examines both external and internal fit as predictors of firm performance where: (1) external fit is the alignment of, or congruence between, the organization's strategy and/or structure and the task environment, and (2) internal fit is the multidimensional matching of strategy with structure. The argument presented here is that both internal and external fit can, and do, occur simultaneously. Further, the presence of one type of fit may compensate for deficiencies in the other. Using fit in terms of both matching and moderation, hypotheses are tested to determine the nature of both internal and external fit of strategy and structure. Testing of the hypotheses is conducted using data from the medical group industry. Findings support the influence of individual strategy and structure variables on medical group performance. However, fit found between strategy and structure, be it as matching or moderation, shows little influence on performance. Implications for medical groups and the broader health care industry are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the interactive effect of turnover and task interdependence on performance in work teams. Based on pervious research, the authors contend that turnover will have a negative effect on team performance and this effect will be more pronounced as teams perform highly interdependent tasks.

Using longitudinal data from the National Football League (NFL), the authors empirically examine the effect of player turnover on NFL team performance (i.e. wins and losses in the subsequent year), and the difference in team performance based on the high/low task interdependence of the work team.

Findings suggest a negative impact of turnover on organizational performance, regardless of the interdependent nature of work team tasks. In addition, the negative influence of turnover is enhanced by the task interdependence within a team.

This is one of the few studies that examine task interdependence as a moderating variable of the turnover – team performance relationship. More specifically, by examining an industry with high team member turnover (i.e. The NFL), the findings from this study give practicing managers a guide as to which work teams managers should attempt to minimize turnover.

This paper aims to investigate whether the level of social capital of the region in which a firm is headquartered affects its tax avoidance activities. Social capital can be defined as the mutual trust in society and literature shows that firms headquartered in high social capital regions exhibit higher level of corporate social responsibility. Recent research suggests that some stakeholders consider tax avoidance as a socially irresponsible and illegitimate activity, whereas others deem corporate tax payments as detrimental to social welfare because they hurt economic development. Building on this debate, the relationship between social capital and tax avoidance is empirically investigated.

A sample of 52,962 firm-year observations over the period 1990-2014 was used to empirically investigate the relationship between social capital and tax avoidance.

Consistent with the idea that managers consider corporate tax payments as a socially responsible action, evidence was found that firms headquartered in areas with high social capital engage significantly less in tax avoidance activities. It was also documented that the negative impact of social capital on tax avoidance is stronger in the presence of high religiosity, high corporate performance and lower sensitivity of CEO’s compensation to stock volatility.

This paper extends research on social capital and improves the understanding of the effect of the social environment on managerial decision. Importantly, by studying the relationship between social capital and tax avoidance, the authors add to the recent debate on companies’ perception of the desirability of tax avoidance activities from a social viewpoint.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of chief financial officer (CFO) gender, board gender diversity and the interaction of both factors on financial reporting quality (FRQ) proxied by restatements.

Restatements indicate inaccurate financial reporting. The authors use fixed effects conditional logistic regression models to compare firms with and without restatements matched by size, industry and year. The authors’ unique matched–pair sample consists of 546 listed US firms from the period 2005–2016.

The authors’ results provide evidence that restatements are less likely when the CFO is a woman and when a higher proportion of women serve on the board of directors (BOD). Considering the interaction effects, the authors find evidence that women on the BOD are more effective at reducing restatement likelihood when the CFO is also a woman. And that although female CFOs reduce restatement likelihood generally, they have no statistically significant effect on restatement likelihood when the BOD is all-male.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first that the authors know of to consider how FRQ is affected by the interaction effects of CFO gender and board gender diversity. The findings corroborate upper echelons theory and extend the understanding of the effects of managerial gender diversity at a time when firms face growing pressure to increase gender diversity at the highest levels. The unique sample, methodology and findings provide new insights into the impact of gender on FRQ that has important policy implications.

Motivated by rapidly increasing CEO age in the USA, the purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of CEO age on financial reporting quality and consider the moderating role of clawback provisions.

This study uses a data set of 18,492 US firm-year observations from 2003 to 2019. Financial reporting quality is proxied with accruals-based and real activities earnings management measures, and with financial statement irregularities, measured by applying Benford’s law to financial statement line items. A number of sensitivity tests are conducted including the use of an instrumental variable.

The results provide evidence that financial statement irregularities are more prevalent when CEOs are older, and they suggest a complex relation between CEO age and real activities earnings management. The results also suggest that the effect of CEO age on financial reporting quality is moderated by the presence of clawback provisions which became mandatory for US-listed firms in October 2022.

This study is the first, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to consider the effect of CEO age on financial statement irregularities and earnings management. This study has important implications for stakeholders evaluating the determinants of financial reporting quality, for boards of directors considering CEO age limitations and for policymakers considering mandating clawback provisions, which recently occurred in the USA.

As the influence of institutional investors over managerial decision-making grows, so does the importance of understanding the effect of institutional investor ownership (IO) on firm outcomes. The authors take a comprehensive approach to studying the effect of IO on earnings management (EM).

The authors study the relation between IO and EM using a sample of 59,503 listed U.S. firm-year observations from 1981–2019. The authors proxy EM with earnings surprises and with accrual-based and real activity measures. The authors test for nonlinear relations and analyze changes resulting from the passage of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act.

The findings support a positive IO-EM relation overall, but show that the relation is dynamic and heavily context-dependent with evidence of nonlinearity. The authors also find evidence that IO positively affects accrual-based EM and real activities EM negatively.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of the IO-EM relation to consider evidence of nonlinearity in the U.S. context, measuring changes to the relation over time, and with the use of several measures of EM.

The study aims to examine “Advertisement content likeability” and its relationships with consumers' purchase and sharing intentions.

Second-order factor analysis was applied. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to measure the moderating effects of technology adoption model, knowledge sharing and Internet maven traits on advertising content's virality.

Results indicate the dimensional structure of ad content likeability that is relevant in predicting consumers' sharing and purchase intentions. Furthermore, the moderating effects of technology acceptance factors (perceived usefulness and ease-of-use), knowledge sharing motives (altruism, reputation and expected reciprocal benefits) and senders' Internet maven characteristics were also found on “Ad content likeability” and “sharing intentions.”

The study expands the theoretical horizon of factors that significantly increase an advertisement's velocity to become more viral.