Do hometown CEOs treat their employees better? Evidence from China

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Abstract

Employees are the most fundamental stakeholders in business operations, and safeguarding their rights and interests is an important manifestation of a firm's level of social responsibility. Little research has addressed whether hometown CEOs can affect employee-related CSR (E-CSR) and how the corporate ownership and regional economic development would moderate such an impact. Using an informal institutional perspective, we extend the literature on CEO characteristics by exploring the factors leading to employee welfare. Analysing a panel dataset of 1018 firms from Chinese A-share listed companies between 2008 and 2020, we find a positive relationship between hometown identity and E-CSR. Further research indicates that the effect is more pronounced in state-owned enterprises and underdeveloped areas. Against the backdrop of weak labour protection in China's labour market, we contribute to research on informal institutions and employee benefits in pursuing harmonious labour relations.

Investment centre manager’s multiperiod fairness perceptions and intertemporal dependency

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Abstract

This paper explores the motivation of investment centre managers when their investment centre's performance is affected by decisions made by their predecessor. Through a qualitative case study of a Japanese manufacturer, the effectiveness of conventional remedies for motivational issues and further motivational issues caused by the same remedies, as identified in the extant literature, are examined. The field data underscore managers' multiperiod as opposed to period-by-period fairness perceptions as key to preventing the further motivational issues. This paper also demonstrates the potential usefulness of the vignette technique as a data collection method in qualitative accounting research.

Academic publishing behavior and pay across business fields

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Abstract

Academic finance faculty earn a premium relative to other business school faculty. We show that the rewards to publishing outside of the top journals (JF, JFE, RFS) are significantly lower in finance relative to a broader set of journals in other business school fields. Revealed preferences from a journal submission survey suggest these incentives influence behavior. We estimate a lower unconditional probability of a top publication in finance, which raises its marginal value, leading to higher compensation. The opportunity cost of academic finance versus industry is also larger relative to other departments. Our results complement a number of recent studies on the rise of finance industry wages and suggest a novel channel that raises the production costs of finance-educated workers.