Search Results (39)

While many organizations are increasingly willing to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) to support strategic objectives such as sustainable development, the ESG benefits of such adoption are not consistently realized across firms. This study investigates the boundary conditions under which AI adoption contributes to ESG performance. This study aims to investigate when AI adoption contributes to enhanced ESG outcomes by examining key organizational boundary conditions. Specifically, it addresses (1) the association between AI adoption and ESG performance, (2) the moderating roles of learning capability, digital top management team (digital TMT), and operational slack. Using a unique dataset constructed by integrating AI adoption announcements extracted through natural language processing from Factiva and ESG scores obtained from Bloomberg, this study analyzes 8469 firm-year observations from 941 publicly listed manufacturing firms in North America between 2015 and 2022. The results reveal that AI adoption is positively associated with ESG performance. Moreover, this positive effect is amplified by digital TMTs and strong learning capabilities, but weakened by operational slack. These findings enrich the literature on AI-enabled sustainability by highlighting the contingent nature of ESG outcomes and offers managerial insights for firms seeking to align AI strategies with ESG objectives. Full article

In the context of global climate change and resource scarcity, corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance, as well as corporate green innovation, have emerged as pivotal drivers for fostering sustainable development. The heterogeneity of the top management team (TMT) significantly influences the direction and effectiveness of both ESG performance and corporate green innovation. Drawing on upper echelon theory, information decision-making theory, and social categorization theory, this paper conducts an empirical study using a sample of 314 manufacturing enterprises and employs multiple linear regression analysis to uncover the impact of TMT heterogeneity on corporate green innovation and the mediating role of ESG performance. The findings from this research suggest that TMT heterogeneity exerts a notable positive influence on green innovation (including green technological innovation and green product innovation), and that ESG performance plays a partial mediating role between TMT heterogeneity and green innovation. This research enriches the theoretical foundation of corporate green innovation from the perspective of TMT heterogeneity and offers pertinent suggestions for enterprises to advance their green innovation development. Full article

In the evolving landscape of corporate governance, the role of Top Management Teams (TMTs) has transcended traditional decision-making paradigms, becoming integral to the implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). While the existing literature has identified general trends in TMT diversity, stability, and leadership styles, there is a lack of comprehensive analysis focusing on the interplay of these characteristics and their direct implications for CSR strategies. This study employs a literature review and bibliometric analysis of the existing literature up to 2023, utilizing the Scopus database to discern trends and patterns in the TMT–CSR relationship. Findings reveal that TMT characteristics, including diversity in gender, age, and professional background, significantly influence CSR strategies, enhancing organizations’ responsiveness to stakeholder needs. Notably, diverse TMTs demonstrate a greater capacity for developing comprehensive CSR initiatives, particularly when led by executives committed to sustainability and ethical practices. The analysis indicates a growing scholarly interest in this intersection, with a marked increase in publications over the past decade, highlighting the strategic importance of TMTs in shaping CSR outcomes. However, the identified research gaps suggest a need for further exploration of context-specific approaches, particularly in varying regional and industry settings, as well as longitudinal studies to capture the dynamic nature of TMT–CSR relationships over time. Full article

The pursuit of innovation and the motivation of personnel have long been crucial considerations for sustainable development of organizations. However, an insufficiently addressed issue lies in the optimization of managerial and employee motivation through compensation structures. Drawing on tournament theory and social comparison theory, this research investigates the influence of both the top management team (TMT) pay gap and the TMT-employee pay gap on firms’ innovation performance. Leveraging an empirical analysis of a longitudinal dataset comprising 2517 firms with 12,052 observations spanning from 2004 to 2020, this study reveals an inverted U-shaped relationship between the TMT team pay gap and firm innovation performance. Additionally, this effect is found to be significantly mitigated in firms characterized by highly homogeneous management teams. Furthermore, our investigation indicates that a wider pay gap between executives and employees positively correlates with improved firm innovation performance. The findings from this study contribute novel theoretical explanations and empirical evidence, offering valuable insights into the nuanced ways in which pay gaps impact innovation performance within distinct organizational contexts. A better system of incentives within organizations directly promotes the development of technological innovation, contributing to social progress, human harmony, and sustainable development. Full article

As digital technology and corporate management increasingly converge, enterprises are actively pursuing digital transformation to enhance their environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) performance, thereby seeking to cultivate novel competitive advantages. This paper studies the impacts of risk-taking and top management team (TMT) as distinct mechanisms on the digital transformation and ESG performance of enterprises. The empirical findings demonstrate that digital transformation has a positive influence on corporate risk-taking, as well as further enhancing the ESG performance of enterprises. Additionally, it was found that educational level, as one of the characteristics of TMT, can moderate digital transformation’s impact on ESG performance. This paper enriches relevant research on digital transformation and expands the path for how companies can enhance their ESG performance by digital transformation, which can better empower businesses and contribute to their sustainable development. Full article

In recent years, there has been growing recognition that the stability of the top management team (TMT) significantly impacts the operation and management of companies. However, few studies have focused on the impact of TMT stability on innovation sustainability. Therefore, based on the upper echelon theory and the faultline theory, this paper takes China’s A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2022 as a sample to explore the impact of TMT stability on corporate innovation sustainability, as well as the moderating effect of executive faultlines on this impact. The results indicate that TMT stability is positively correlated with corporate innovation sustainability, whereas the executive faultlines significantly weaken this correlation. The mechanism test reveals that a stable senior management team can reduce an enterprise’s operational risk through the management functions of executives, alleviate the financing constraints serving as a stability signal sent by the company to investors and creditors, and thus promote the sustainability of innovation. Heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that the influence of TMT stability on corporate innovation sustainability is more pronounced in companies with a high percentage of executive shareholdings, non-state ownership, and CEOs possessing technical expertise. This paper combines the overall stability of the executive team with the differentiation of its internal subgroups, broadens the research perspective of the upper echelon theory, and serves as a valuable reference for the development of corporate executive teams. Full article

In an era where digital transformation (DGT) is pivotal for organizational resilience and competitiveness, integrating sustainability into the digitalization process has emerged as a strategic imperative. By employing the resource-based view (RBV) and the dynamic capability theory (DCT), this study delves into the micro-foundations of DGT in medium- and large-sized enterprises, highlighting the synergistic role of managerial digital literacy in fostering digital transformation through the mediation role of digital readiness and the moderation role of the top management team (TMT). To fulfill the objectives of this study, data were collected through a cross-sectional mail survey, yielding responses from 235 senior and mid-level managers across medium- and large-sized firms in various industries within Turkey. Results have confirmed that digital literacy significantly enhances digital transformation and readiness, laying the groundwork for successful digital transformation initiatives. Digital readiness significantly mediates the relationship between digital literacy and digital transformation, indicating that enhancing digital literacy is a crucial step that indirectly influences digital transformation through improving digital readiness. The moderating effect of top management team (TMT) behavioral integration on the digital literacy and digital readiness link is affirmed, highlighting its critical role in facilitating organizational digital adaptation. TMT behavioral integration does not positively moderate the direct relationship between digital literacy and digital transformation. The study’s findings offer a novel lens on digital transformation, revealing that the interplay between digital literacy, readiness, and TMT behavioral integration crafts a strategic scaffold for enhancing organizational agility and competitive edge in the digital era. Full article

Government requests and societal expectations have pressured high-polluting companies to focus on corporate social responsibility strategies. Using the upper echelons theory as a theoretical framework, we investigated how top management team (TMT) faultlines influence corporate social performance (CSP) based on data from 212 high-polluting companies. The results showed that CSP can be improved by reducing corporate social irresponsibility (CSiR), knowledge-based faultlines have a U-shaped effect on CSiR, and there is a knowledge-based faultline critical point. This implies that knowledge-based faultlines can improve CSiR before reaching this critical point. Additionally, medium-strength knowledge-based faultlines are more conducive to improving irresponsible behavior. CEO power plays a significant moderating role in the relationship between TMT faultlines and CSiR and slows the U-shaped effect of knowledge-based faultlines on CSiR. These findings could help enterprises optimize team structures, adjust corporate social responsibility strategies, and maintain sustainable development in high-polluting sectors. Full article

Currently, the research on corporate digital transformation is mainly explored from the perspective of independent decision-making, but pays less attention to the interactive impact among peer firms. Taking the listed equipment manufacturing enterprises in China as its research sample, this paper uses theoretical analysis and empirical tests to test the impact of peer effect in corporate digital transformation and the moderating effect of top management team (TMT) characteristics. The results show that there are industry peer effects and regional peer effects in corporate digital transformation in which TMT characteristics play a moderating effect. Furthermore, the higher the proportion of females, the younger the average age, the higher the average education, and the longer the average tenure in TMT, the more significant the positive impact of industry peer effect and regional peer effect in corporate digital transformation. The above conclusions remain valid when using change variables, Tobit tests, lag period tests, and IV methods for robustness tests. Further analysis of the results shows that there is a non-linear impact between digital transformation and green technological innovation, and there are multiple mediating effects among industry and regional peer effects, digital transformation, R&D, and green technological innovation. In addition, it is necessary to further examine the social network peer effect in corporate digital transformation as well as the mechanism and economic consequences of peer effect in the future. These findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the driving factors that affect the digital transformation of equipment manufacturing enterprises in China and provide new evidence and theoretical contributions for enterprises to enhance the efficiency of digital transformation and strengthen the construction of a TMT. Full article

Prior studies have suggested that a large pay gap within the top management team (TMT) can motivate executives to outperform each other and that such competition consequently enhances productivity. We argue that a high pay disparity elicits managerial negative efforts and promotes bribery activities, but this effect can be mitigated by demographic diversity in the TMT and also can be affected by the characteristics of the CEO–TMT demographic interface. Using a sample of listed Chinese firms, our empirical results show that pay disparity is positively associated with bribery expenditure and this association derives mainly from the vertical component when pay disparity is examined via its vertical and horizontal components. In addition, we found that the positive relationship between pay disparity and bribery is weakened when the non-CEO executives have diverse demographic characteristics, and it is strengthened if the CEO is demographically similar to the other executives. This study contributes to the literature on corruption and TMTs by revealing the implications of managerial incentives for firm bribery and by elucidating the role of TMT composition. Full article

The current world’s green economy and digital economy collide at an accelerated pace, and the deep integration of digitalization and greening has become a new requirement for high-quality industrial transformation. Premised on a socio-technical system (STS)’s theoretical viewpoint from Chinese manufacturing firms, the study examines the effects of the digital transformation (DT) of companies on green transformation (GT), as well as the function of channels and processes. This study uses 70 samples of A-share-listed Chinese manufacturing companies from 2013 to 2020; a combination of linear regression and fsQCA is used to empirically test the research model and analyze the equivalence path. It is found that (1) DT significantly drives the GT of manufacturing firms; (2) DT influences the GT of manufacturing firms by alleviating the information asymmetry problem; and (3) executive team heterogeneity plays a positive mechanism role in the relationship between DT and GT. The qualitative comparative analysis yields two types of paths: (1) the main constructs that shape high GT levels are high DT intensity, low information asymmetry, and high TMT gender heterogeneity, which mainly arise in the eastern region and play a more pronounced role in state-owned enterprises, heavy pollution, and high-tech industries; (2) for non-state-owned enterprises in traditional industries in the central and western regions with average digital development, high TMT gender heterogeneity is the key to GT. The study expands the application of related theories and has practical implications for how Chinese manufacturing enterprises can effectively promote GT. Full article

Private construction businesses have grown quickly, greatly boosting China’s economic growth; nonetheless, these businesses suffer tremendous developmental uncertainty, particularly when compared to larger state-owned businesses. The traits of the top management team (TMT) may have a direct impact on how risk-taking and decision-making behaviors are exhibited by businesses, according to earlier studies. The majority of private construction companies in China are family businesses with family members making up the majority of their top executives. As a result, these companies are vulnerable to family centralization, which will definitely boost their risk-taking level. This study used a sample of private listed companies in China’s construction industry from 2009 to 2019 to explore the impact of CEO traits on the risk-taking degree of enterprises. The findings show that a higher percentage of top female managers and a higher average rate of TMT member both lower the level of risk taking in private construction businesses. The level of risk taking, however, is positively impacted by the top management’s higher average education level. The average tenure and overseas experience of TMTs and the degree of risk taking in private construction enterprises are not significantly correlated. Additionally, the degree of risk taking in private construction firms can vary depending on the qualities of the senior management team. Full article

The era of big data has changed the traditional data science based on mathematical statistics, and promoted the innovation of data analysis methods. This paper takes China state-holding holding enterprises as the research object, uses game theory as the method, uses top management team (TMT) knowledge hiding degree as the background to construct a minority shareholder governance information database, and discusses the feasibility of using minority shareholders’ active governance to break through and increase earnings management costs. The findings indicate, firstly, by optimizing enterprise information disclosure and reducing TMT knowledge hiding, the cost of minority shareholders’ participation in governance can be reduced and the enthusiasm of minority shareholders’ participation in governance can be promoted. Secondly, the presence of minority shareholders actively engaged in corporate governance can discourage two kinds of earnings management practices of managers in China state-holding enterprises. Finally, for the companies with weak state-holding and unannounced dividend policy, the active governance of minority shareholders has a more prominent restraining effect on the two types of earnings management. With an eye on strengthening the corporate micro-governance mechanism, this paper provides guidance for minority shareholders to strengthen their participation in the governance of China’s state-holding enterprises. Full article

Digitalization has brought great changes to economic and social development, and corporate digital transformation has gradually become the focus of academic attention. We explore the economic impacts of digital transformation from the perspective of corporate innovation utilizing a sample of China’s A-share listed manufacturing firms from 2008 to 2020, depending on the quasi-natural experiment of “Integration of Informatization & Industrialization”. Using the difference-in-differences (DID) model, we document that the growth of innovation considerably tends to rise via corporate digital transformation, and top management team (TMT) heterogeneity plays a positively moderating role in this process. The findings are still reliable after the parallel trend test, PSM-DID, placebo test, and the test of excluding alternative explanations. Extended analyses find that the innovation incentive effect of digital transformation will enhance corporate value in the later stage. Our findings not only contribute to the advancement of the study in digital transformation, but also offer theoretical support and useful advice for furthering corporate digitalization and upgrading the mechanism for creative growth. Full article

Green innovation has become one of the most important approaches to achieving sustainable development in modern business. Top management team (TMT)’s overseas experience, as one type of unique resources, constitutes the cognitive basis of the team and thus influences firms’ strategic decision-making. Based on the upper echelon theory, this study aims to investigate the effect of TMT’s overseas experiences on green innovation performances. By utilizing a panel dataset of Chinese listed firms, this study shows that TMTs’ overseas experience indeed promotes firms’ green innovation performance and that both firms’ digital transformation and regions’ digital economy development positively moderate the relationship between TMTs’ overseas experience and green innovation. These findings not only help managers better organize the TMT and green innovation strategy but also draw policymakers’ attention to the importance of the digital economy and sustainable development. Full article