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This paper analyses the impact of sustainability through ESG factors on the default risk. The sample consists of 990 non-financial firms in the Eurozone over the period 2004–2020. The results show that ESG factors influence default risk, although this relationship could be influenced by the economic cycle. Also, the results highlight a significant interaction effect between firm size and ESG which affects default risk. Considering firm size by terciles, the evidence obtained shows that smaller and medium-sized firms have a positive net effect of a high ESG score on their default risk, while the opposite effect was found among larger firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Project management and project portfolio management (PPM) foster competitiveness by facilitating the implementation of organizational strategy. Although organizations often struggle to develop PPM capabilities, the academic community does not have an in-depth understanding of the conditions for successfully developing these capabilities. In response, we conducted a multiple-case study with 50 interviewees to develop a theoretical model of the PPM capability-building process. This model is built on the notion of organizational sensemaking and identifies aspects that comprehensively explain why it usually takes so long to develop PPM capabilities. We conceptualize the PPM capability-building process as one that is strongly influenced by (1) the effects of structural rearrangements, (2) the appropriate use of external resources during that process, (3) the role of executive support and legitimization, (4) episodes of regression, and (5) the need for internalization and habitualization. In addition, we provide starting points for explaining organizational capability building in more general terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impact of multiple directorships on board meeting attendance at the individual director level. By using the individual director attendance rate in Pakistani-listed firms, we find no direct effect of multiple board appointments (director busyness) on the tendency to remain absent from board meetings, even not when making the distinction between executive and non-executive directors. Furthermore, we introduce ownership percentage as an important moderator in the model. Our results show that higher directors' shareholdings will motivate busy non-executive directors to attend more board meetings. In contrast, higher executive director busyness will lead to declining board meeting attendance when director ownership is higher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firm managers are facing increasing external pressure to allocate firm resources to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) efforts. Given that ESG activities are frequently perceived as in opposition to shareholder value, however, managers may find it difficult to decide which projects they should select and how much they should invest. Using MSCI ESG Ratings and Glassdoor employee ratings of senior managers as signals for firm ESG efforts and high managerial ability, we find evidence that high-ability managers allocate resources to ESG in a way that enhances shareholder value. Specifically, we implement a calendar-time portfolio regression design and find that firms with highly rated managers and high ESG exhibit significantly higher future stock returns than firms with low ratings on both. The results are robust to using different fixed effect structures as well as controlling for more covariates in a panel regression. Overall the results highlight the importance of senior managers in allocating resources to ESG efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and bond return volatility. While previous research has focused on the impact of CSR on equity markets and stockholders, there is limited research on its effect on debt markets and bondholders. The study finds a strong positive relationship between corporate social performance and bond return volatility. The impact of CSR strengths and concerns on bond return volatility is also examined, with CSR strengths having a greater effect. Additionally, the study finds that CSR spending is associated with higher tax avoidance and managerial risk-taking, which further increases bond return volatility. Overall, the findings suggest that a firm's social engagement increases the risk associated with its bonds, potentially leading to higher return volatility. [Extracted from the article]

This paper assesses whether a climate factor is relevant to measure default risk in a sample of main companies listed on the STOXX Europe 600 exchange from 2010 to 2020. The starting point is a factorial panel data model which is subsequently modified to capture the climate impact through different functional forms. We find that relevant differences in default risk exist before and after the Paris Agreement. Our analysis also indicates that this difference cannot be explained by means of traditional financial factors. Finally, we further show that a climate change risk and opportunities label is a significant factor in evaluating credit risk, both prior to and post-Paris agreement. These results are important to the extent that they suggest that companies' market performance itself allows to measure differences in credit risk between companies and to link them with climate risk factors. This approach may be useful as a complement or in combination with the traditional use of exogenous climate factors that have been widely used in the literature in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines (1) how corporate social responsibility (CSR) or the three pillars of sustainable investing, viz., the environmental (E), social (S), and governance (G) pillars, individually affect innovation performance (IP) and business performance (BP) and (2) how power distance (PD) moderates the impact of the ESG pillars on IP and BP. Our findings of studying 116 multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the technology industry from 2013 to 2018 suggest that not all indicators significantly affect the performance of the MNEs. That is, the G pillar has a positive influence on IP, whereas the E and S pillars are negatively related to BP. Moreover, we find that PD significantly moderates the relationship between two pillars of ESG (E and S) and BP. Specifically, the E and S pillars are negatively related to BP when PD is low, but the relationship is significantly and statistically positive when PD is high. The results can provide technology MNE managers with references for their CSR implementation strategy choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the voluntary disclosure of earnings forecasts by female CEOs. We find that in the backdrop of increased pressure to perform from investors and other stakeholders, female CEOs tend to issue more earnings forecasts than male CEOs, and those forecasts are more accurate. We also find that while financial analysts generally prefer to follow companies headed by male CEOs, female CEOs' efforts to issue accurate earnings forecasts pay off, as these efforts help them close the analyst coverage gap. We provide complementary evidence on the disclosure efforts of female CEOs with regard to updates to the forecast and the 10-K report. Lastly, we show that financial analysts rely more on the earnings forecasts of female CEOs, possibly because they recognize female CEOs' superior forecasting quality. Our results are robust to the use of alternative research designs, including difference-in-difference, propensity score matching, and entropy balancing. Overall, our study documents gender differences in voluntary disclosure by senior management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characterization of how entrepreneurial a region or country is, has generally been shaped by a narrow view of what actually constitutes entrepreneurship. In the case of Germany, this has led to a characterization of Germany as not being particularly entrepreneurial. Such a view is at odds with the remarkable, high-performing family business, widely held to be the backbone of the economy. The purpose of this paper is to suggest that the interpretation prevalent in entrepreneurship literature is problematic due to a too narrow operationalization of the entrepreneurship concept. As Zahra (2007; 2014) emphasized, context matters for entrepreneurship, especially on a local or spatial level. One particular organizational manifestation of entrepreneurship, family business, may be congruent in specific spatial and institutional contexts but not in others. Other geographic and institutional contexts may be congruent with the contrasting startups. Thus, an important and novel contribution of this paper is to analyze the geography of family business as distinct from startups: two ends of the entrepreneurship continuum, embedded in different kinds of entrepreneurial ecosystems. We generate innovative maps working with official data, showing the distinct distribution of both kinds of entrepreneurship in different ecosystems. These findings are connected with spatial effects, living conditions and lead to recommendations for policy measures. The paper focuses on Germany, because startups as well as family business are prevalent and can be found in all regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Work from home or teleworking, continues to expand not least due to the COVID-19-crisis and poses challenges for employees and companies. In uncertain and dynamic times, organisations wonder what skills make employees successful when working from home and which measures support employees. By performing in-depth research that addresses employee agility as skills and capabilities, a research framework is proposed. Based on an international survey of employees working from home during the COVID-19-crisis (N = 1,016), the impact of agile work characteristics on work from home success and the mediating effect (accounting for 48% of the total effect) of tailored support measures by HRM were investigated. The results of the mediation analysis show that agile work characteristics have a direct, positive and significant effect on the success of working from home. Part of the effect is explained by HRM measures as a mediator. The findings contribute to the research stream of dynamic capabilities by applying the theory to working from home. The comparatively simple research model provides companies with information on how they can best support employees in the dynamics of a crisis and the expansion of work from home and, therefore, has high relevance for practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the association between firms' strategy and their corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance and whether the alignment between strategy and CSR activities affects firms' financial performance. We describe firms' strategies as innovation differentiation, marketing differentiation, and cost leadership Miller, (1986). We expect a higher benefit from CSR for firms that rely more on innovation differentiation and a lower benefit for firms that rely more on marketing differentiation and cost leadership. We measure firms' strategy through a textual analysis of 10-K filings and collect CSR data from KLD Ratings. We find that innovation differentiation strategy is positively associated with CSR performance, while cost leadership (marketing differentiation) is negatively (insignificantly) associated with CSR performance. Moreover, we find that innovating differentiators with higher CSR performance achieve higher financial performance. Finally, we provide additional evidence that information asymmetry and financial constraints moderate the alignment between firms' strategy and CSR performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study theoretically and empirically the relation between altruism and incentive contract design. Theoretically, we extend Fischer and Huddart (2008) to investigate how social norms reinforce managers' altruistic preferences, thus affecting the optimal contract design related to incentive strength and performance measurement. Empirically, we draw on the notion of an organization's work climate to capture managers' altruistic preferences. Using data collected from a sample of 557 managers, we find that in a work climate where managers are mostly out for themselves, firms have lower pay-for-performance sensitivity and place a greater weight on aggregate performance measures. In addition, respondents report that they engage more in undesirable actions that are unproductive and costly to firm owners. In contrast, in a work climate where managers care about others (including peers in their organizational unit), firms place lower weights on aggregate performance measures. At the same time, respondents report that they supply more effort and engage less in undesirable actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, immunotherapy, in particular immunotherapeutic vaccines, is a promising approach in the treatment of cancer which has already demonstrated its effectiveness. Extracellular vesicles (EVs), which are capable of delivering biologically active agents to the cells, can be a promising candidate for such vaccines. M14 human melanoma cells were transduced with lentivirus encoding interleukin (IL)–2. Membrane vesicles from M14 cells expressing IL-2 were isolated using cytochalasin B. The interaction of membrane vesicles with human peripheral blood mononuclear cells has been analyzed. Activation of T cells was shown, as well as a decrease in the number of NK cells, after cultivation with tumor-derived vesicles. However, no cytotoxic activity of T cells after cultivation with tumor-derived vesicles was observed, which can be explained by their immunosuppressive properties. On the other hand, such vesicles can be a promising source of tumor-specific antigens for dendritic vaccines. Therefore, further studies are required in view of the possible use of tumor-derived vesicles as a target antigen for dendritic cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address the lacuna of how informal institutions like Buddhism impact social entrepreneurship in different regions within a nation, this research draws on the social entrepreneurship literature and the regional Buddhist research to propose a mediating framework where the percentage of Buddhist entrepreneurs in a region is positively associated both with the level of prosocial behaviors such as charity, due to the values of Buddhism, and with the probability of establishing businesses in a less-developed region. It further proposes that charitable behaviors mediate the relationship between the percentage of Buddhist entrepreneurs in a region and establishing businesses in less-developed regions. This mediating effect is attributed to the mechanism that charitable behaviors absorb the limited resources of entrepreneurs, reducing their resources for establishing businesses in less-developed regions. We test these hypotheses on nationwide surveys of founders of private enterprises and find support for this mediating view. Broad implications for theoretical and empirical research are discussed. Plain English Summary: This study distinguishes between the different influences of Buddhist entrepreneurs in a region both on charitable behaviors and on the establishment of businesses in less-developed regions. Using nationwide surveys of founders of private enterprises in the Chinese context, multilevel analyses support a mediating view and have several implications. This research proposes that Buddhist values like the Four Immeasurables underline the positive effect of Buddhist entrepreneurs in a region on charitable behaviors, and that Buddhism can bring the essence of entrepreneurship, such as social capital, political connections, and legitimacy, to entrepreneurs and stimulate them, through an isomorphic effect, to engage in establishing businesses in less-developed regions. Furthermore, we highlight that the influence of Buddhist entrepreneurs in a region on establishing businesses in less-developed regions is weakened when they commit limited resources to prosocial behaviors like charity. In relation to policy, our study shows that Buddhist values and practices deeply influence social entrepreneurship, and it highlights the social function of Buddhist entrepreneurs in a transitional economy such as that of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research suggests that corporate corruption culture captures an audit client's general attitude towards opportunistic behavior. In this paper, we examine whether the relation between client corruption culture and audit quality is attenuated or exacerbated by the competitive position of the incumbent auditor in the local audit market. We find that the incumbent auditor's weak competitive position in the local audit market exacerbates the negative effects of client corruption culture on audit quality. By the same token, we show that the incumbent auditor's strong competitive position in the local audit market attenuates the adverse audit quality effects associated with client corruption culture. Our findings speak to the interplay between client corruption culture and the competitive position of the incumbent auditor in US local audit markets and is of potential interest to regulators concerned about the impact of client corruption culture and audit market competition on audit quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides evidence that the #MeToo movement revised investors' beliefs about the costs (benefits) of fostering an exclusive (inclusive) culture, as reflected by the absence (presence of a critical mass) of women directors in the board room. Tracking a timeline of events associated with the #MeToo movement that begin with the Harvey Weinstein exposé in October 2017 in the New York Times, we document contrasting market reactions to the movement depending on the existing culture of the firm. Firms that historically excluded women from their board experienced a negative market response as momentum for the cause increased, whereas investors responded favorably to firms that historically embraced the inclusion of women on their boards. In contrast, we do not detect differences in the market's response to randomly generated pseudo-events during the same time frame when comparing firms with exclusive and inclusive cultures. In the context of increased regulator attention to board gender diversity, as well as the ESG activist campaigns by large institutional investors, our study documents a shift in investors' beliefs about the risks associated with sexual misconduct and about the value of having women in the boardroom shaping the culture of the firm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although a large number of researchers have explored the dynamics of organizational change for environmental, social, and financial sustainability, a systematic literature review highlighting the state of the knowledge so far is lacking. The current paper attempts to address this gap. A total of 62 peer-reviewed journal articles were selected by using a range of databases. The review of the available literature reveals that, overall, the field has moved toward conducting more theory-building research, given that the majority of the studies either employ a case study approach (30) or remain conceptual in nature (19). It appears that relatively more studies have examined the influence of organizational antecedents on the scale and stages of organizational change for sustainability. In this context, the impact of learning, organizational culture, and leadership on the process of change has attracted more attention. The literature also focuses on exploring the influence of scale and stages of change on sustainability outcomes. Moreover, the influence of organizational antecedents on the process of change in terms of management accounting systems has largely been ignored in the literature. Further, less is known about the impact of contextual factors on the process of organizational change for sustainability. The identified areas of future research will potentially guide in addressing the research gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether engagement in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities mitigates the liability of newness (LoN) faced with new ventures and thus contributes to their financial performance. We theorize that investments in CSR are especially beneficial for young firms confronted with this liability. Undertaking CSR activities can serve as a balanced solution to both the internal and external contingencies associated with LoN without incurring considerable costs and thereby lead to the better performance of new ventures. In addition, we further investigate the boundary conditions of CSR in mitigating LoN and identify family ownership and firm age as two important determinants of the worth of CSR engagement. CSR is expected to create more value for family-owned or nascent new ventures. Taking Chinese private firms as our sample, we find supportive empirical evidence. Plain English Summary: A critical challenge haunting new ventures is the liability of newness (LoN), and new ventures are believed to have quite limited strategic discretion to overcome this liability due to their heightened resource constraints. Focusing on this topic, we examine the feasibility of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a strategy for new ventures to cope with LoN. Long considered to demand considerable resource commitment, CSR is implicitly assumed to be unavailable to this group of firms. However, by revisiting the affordability of CSR activities and exploring CSR-related benefits for new ventures, we discover that CSR engagement serves as a useful strategy to mitigate LoN. Moreover, family-owned or nascent new ventures in particular are highly advised to recognize the strategic worth of CSR efforts. If new ventures aim to deal with this liability, they should consider incorporating certain strategies, such as CSR engagement, which is regarded as available mostly to established companies, into their tool kits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A poor ethical culture has been considered one of the reasons for the emergence of many corporate governance scandals. In this paper, I investigate the link between ethical culture and the composition of the board of directors for a sample of Brazilian companies. My measure of ethical culture is based on a text analysis of around 50,000 employee reviews posted at Glassdoor for over 1,400 terms related to five ethical dimensions: organizational trust, ethical leadership, benevolent orientation, empathy, and speaking out & efficacy. I find partial support for the hypotheses that a higher ratio of independent directors and of women on boards are associated with better ethical culture. My strong results, in turn, refer to a corporate governance feature little discussed in the literature: the percentage of board members appointed by minority shareholders. In this case, all models exhibit a strong negative relationship between the ratio of such directors and ethical culture. To my knowledge, this is the first paper to document a link between ethical culture and corporate governance mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we examine the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deal premiums. More precisely, we explore the value enhancing role of target's pre-acquisition CSR performance at an M&A transaction by focusing on the deal premiums. We also examine whether firms in the service industries experience a higher deal premium due to their CSR performance compared to firms in other industries. We use several data sources (i.e. MSCI ESG KLD STATS, FactSet, Compustat and CRSP) to compile the final sample of the study, 277 completed acquisitions over the period 1996–2018. We use ordinary least square regression to estimate empirical models and find that target's pre-acquisition CSR performance is positively related to deal premium. Moreover, the moderation analysis indicates that the positive effect of targets' CSR performance on deal premium is more profound for firms operating in the service industries than those in non-service industries. The findings of the study is robust to different operationalizations of deal premium. Additionally, examining the positive and negative CSR attributes separately, we reveal consistent evidence with the prediction that positive CSR involvement of target firms increases the deal premium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the influence of face-based judgments of CFO and CEO honesty on earnings management for the largest publicly traded companies in America. After controlling for incentives and opportunities to manage earnings, CFOs perceived to be less honest engage in higher levels of accruals earnings management and real earnings management. The beneficial impact of perceived honesty on earnings quality is most pronounced when both the CFO and the CEO are perceived to be more honest. Findings are consistent with our conjecture that both the CFO and CEO contribute to a firm's financial reporting environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that role modeling can explain the impact of boardroom gender diversity on corporate performance. It theorizes that female workers are boosted by female leadership, gain increased motivation, and achieve greater productivity, thereby making their female directors more effective. We test this bottom–up approach to the trickle-down hypothesis on data hand-collected among local cooperatives providing microcredit in Senegal. All the organizations surveyed are similar and small, which allows us to use a homogenous performance metric. All of them outsource their human resource management to the same third party, which mitigates the risk of endogeneity. The data cover over 100,000 triads composed of gender dominance on the board, gender of CEO, and gender of credit officer. A better financial performance is achieved when the triad is gender-uniform—be it male or female—confirming the importance of role modeling and suggesting that the performance of female board members depends on the gender composition of the workforce. Plain English summary Women's leadership styles differ from men's. But we still ignore whether the styles adopted by male and female directors make any difference in terms of financial performance. Scholars hold controversial views about whether and how the financial performance of firms depends on gender diversity in the boardroom. This article speculates that female directors act as role models on their subordinates ("trickle-down effect") and their impact is "bottom–up" in the sense that female workers gain increased motivation when working under female leadership. We hand-collected data from financial cooperatives in Senegal. These organizations enabled us to observe the unlikely situation of boards including over 50% of women. We measured financial performance with loan repayment. Our results confirm that female-dominated boards achieve a better financial performance when they work with female CEOs and female subordinates. The principal implication is that the performance of female board members depends on the gender composition of the workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study adapts a multi-level view of culture, including society- and family-based gender norms and the family embeddedness perspective, to predict the career status of a sample of 2897 young Europeans (aged 18–35) from 11 countries, with at least one self-employed parent. We find that gender identity is associated with career status such that a woman is more likely than a man to be an employee vs. a successor to a family firm but no less likely to be a founder as compared with either being an employee or successor. However, certain family and society-level culture variables combined with gender identity reverse these trends. A woman with caring responsibilities is more likely to be a successor than either a founder or employee. Also, while two-way interaction effects for traditional gender norms and having a self-employed mother are weak or not significant, the study finds that in combination, a woman reporting both traditional gender norms and having a self-employed mother is more likely to be a successor than being either an employee or a founder, reversing gender identity main effects. Incorporating the family embeddedness perspective and the role of culture in occupational choice, we develop a better view of the gender gap in entrepreneurship, finding that the family may serve as a stronger influence than society when implied norms of these two levels of culture clash. By examining actual rather than intended career choice, we also contribute to the occupational choice literature on youth employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women's entrepreneurship is increasingly important for creating new jobs and contributing to the social and economic growth of their societies, yet the interplay and nuances of women's entrepreneurship and culture are currently understudied. In this special issue, we present eight empirical papers that delve into different aspects of the dynamic interaction between gender and culture in shaping women's entrepreneurship. We provide framework for women's entrepreneurship and culture research to organize the empirical research herein into three interconnected themes: gender role expectations and identities, societal cultural dimensions, and the entrepreneurial environment. This collection is an important step in integrating research on women's entrepreneurship and culture and further exploring these dynamic and complex interactions, in different economic and societal systems and across geographies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corruption is prevalent in the developing world, negatively impacting small businesses. While research on corruption has focused on bribery from an economics-system perspective, there has been less research on the role of bribery from a more micro perspective. In this study, we explore bribery from the demand side by anchoring our qualitative, theory-building efforts in 12 new firms, 10 government officials, and 13 agents (for brokering bribery payments) in India. We found that in corrupt systems, the bureaucracy of government departments is deliberately made more bureaucratic by corrupt informal autonomous ventures within government departments that use informal human resource management systems to develop and perpetuate corruption and that recognize new legal constraints as an opportunity to use brokers to facilitate bribery. We highlight how these corrupt informal autonomous ventures engage in and perpetuate corruption, a practice that is destructive to the government, to small businesses, and to the people's confidence in the nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the effects of entrepreneurs allocating time and resources for pro-social initiatives on the perceptions of potential financial investors. Conducting two experiments, we investigate these effects and report findings that suggest corporate social responsibility initiatives may lead to increased favorable judgments of legitimacy, which in turn, facilitate obtaining funding from financial investors. We also find that these effects are more likely to occur in environments marked by low levels of dynamism. The contribution of this research is both novel and important, as it is concerned with entrepreneurs who are uniquely not necessarily concerned with being regarded as "green," but may incorporate green initiatives in their for-profit ventures. Therefore, this study improves our understanding of how non-green entrepreneurs who act upon their pro-social values may be perceived by financial investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes how the board's characteristics could be associated with globally corporate social responsibility CSR and specific areas of CSR. It is drawn on all listed firms, in 2016, on the SBF120 between 2003 and 2016. Our results provide strong evidence that diversity in boards and diversity of boards globally are positively associated with corporate social performance. However, they influence differently specific dimensions of CSR performance. First, we show that large boards are positively associated with all areas of CSR performance, while specific and overall CSR scores are negatively associated with CEO-chair structures. Second, board gender diversity is positively associated with human rights and corporate governance dimensions. Third, age diversity is positively associated with corporate governance, human resources, human rights, and environmental activities. Also, our results provide evidence that outside directors care about CSR performance. Specifically, the presence of foreign directors is positively associated with environmental performance and community involvement, whereas CSR-Governance dimension is positively associated with the presence of independent directors. Regarding the director's educational level, post-graduated directors are positively and significantly associated with overall CSR score and all CSR sub-scores, except the corporate governance one. When directors have multiple directorships, they are more concerned about human resources, environmental performance, and business ethics. Finally, our findings are robust only in non-family firms. In fact, family boards are less diverse than non-family ones; specifically, they have a lower number of independent, foreign, and high-educated directors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the relationship between an entrepreneur's age and his/her social value creation goals. Building on the lifespan developmental psychology literature and institutional theory, we hypothesize a U-shaped relationship between entrepreneurs' age and their choice to create social value through their ventures, such that younger and older entrepreneurs create more social value with their businesses while middle age entrepreneurs are relatively more economically and less socially oriented with their ventures. We further hypothesize that the quality of a country's formal institutions in terms of economic, social, and political freedom steepen the U-shaped relationship between entrepreneurs' age and their choice to pursue social value creation as supportive institutional environments allow entrepreneurs to follow their age-based preferences. We confirm our predictions using multilevel mixed-effects linear regressions on a sample of over 15,000 entrepreneurs (aged between 18 and 64 years) in 45 countries from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data. The findings are robust to several alternative specifications. Based on our findings, we discuss implications for theory and practice, and we propose future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizations are facing an interesting phenomenon in the composition of their workforce: the concurrence of multiple age generations that demand suitable strategies regarding work design, job satisfaction, and incentives. Ongoing entrepreneurship and strategic management debates require a better understanding of the relationship between workplace generational cohorts' configurations and organizational performance. We propose a conceptual model for understanding how a diversified workforce influences some determinants (i.e., employees' human capital and attitudes, organizational climate, and environmental conditions) of entrepreneurial organizations' outcomes (i.e., corporate venturing). Our framework offers insights into corporate venturing determinants for three generational cohorts: Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y. Using a sample of 20,256 employees across 28 countries, our findings lend support to the positive effect of individual and organizational determinants on corporate venturing, as well as how these effects are reinforced per generational cohort. Specifically, our results show that younger generations (millennials) have more propensity to be involved in corporate venturing activities. This study also contributes to thought-provoking implications for entrepreneurial organizational leaders who manage employees from different generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of teamwork on sell-side analysts' performance. Using a hand-collected sample of over 50,000 analyst research reports, we find that analyst teams issue more than 70% of annual earnings forecasts. In contrast, most research implicitly assumes that forecasts are issued by individual analysts. We document that analyst teams generate more accurate earnings forecasts than individual analysts and that the stock market reacts more strongly to forecast revisions issued by teams. Analyst teams also cover more firms, issue earnings forecasts more frequently, and issue less stale forecasts. Analysts working in teams are more likely to be voted as All-Star analysts in the future. Among analyst teams, we show that team size and team member ability are significantly associated with forecast accuracy. Moreover, using detailed analyst background information from LinkedIn, we find that forecast accuracy is positively associated with team diversity based on sell-side experience, educational background, and gender. Additional analyses suggest that analyst teams, especially more diverse ones, are more likely to issue cash-flow forecasts and use discounted cash-flow valuation models in their reports. These findings suggest that teamwork and team diversity play a crucial role in understanding sell-side analysts' performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental pollution has become a serious challenge in emerging markets. Using a unique survey of privately owned enterprises in China, this paper investigates how polluting firms respond to institutional pressures. We find that polluting firms conform to external pressures by combining relational activities and clean technology investments. However, some polluting firms alleviate regulative pressures by bribing government officials, which represents an unethical relational strategy to manage political relationship. We further analyze the contingency on firm-level political connection and local institutional conditions. Political connection buffers firms from institutional demand and demotivates firms' willingness to respond to institutional pressures; stronger local civic activism and better bureaucratic governance curb the pollution-driven bribery, but they are not strong enough to enhance environmentally friendly practices. Collectively, our study demonstrates how polluting firms navigate institutional pressures in emerging markets, and it particularly highlights the pollution-driven bribery as an obstacle to sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our article contributes to the recurring debate on whether and how firms in competitive markets should pursue objectives other than purely financial ones. Two competing approaches dominate this debate: one favors profit maximization as a single objective; the other favors multiple, partly social objectives. This debate has been going on for decades without approaching consensus. Our article offers an explanation for this intellectual stalemate and proposes a constitutional perspective that reconciles and improves the two seemingly antagonistic approaches. At the core of our proposed solution lies the distinction between the sub-constitutional level of action (choices within constraints) and the constitutional level of rules (choices among constraints). Using this distinction, we argue that both single-objective and multi-objective theories of the firm play equally important, but categorically different roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of women on boards of directors has become a social and economic demand. The relation between their presence on the board of directors and improved firm performance has already been studied. This paper aims to shed light on this topic by providing the first test as to how the level of innovation in the company may moderate this relationship. Our results, for a panel data of 231 European listed firms and based on GMM analysis, show that a critical mass of women positively affects firm performance, and that this effect increases as the firm’s innovation activity increases. We situate the analysis in the outset of the gender revolution in the Western countries to understand the nature of the gender equality process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the concept of entrepreneurial ecosystems is now a prominent topic and an important stream in entrepreneurship research, the question of how ecosystems can specifically promote sustainable entrepreneurship and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations is a neglected issue. With the papers in this special issue, we address this research gap, serving as a catalyst sparking more research at the nexus of contextualization of entrepreneurship and sustainability. This research has, since the 1990s, developed in three waves; the explicit linkage to SDGs and the investigation of impacts of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ecosystems in achieving societal and environmental goals might be considered as the "fourth wave." We first introduce relevant research streams and concepts for investigating sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems. Then, we explain why this special issue and its articles represent a fourth wave in entrepreneurial research ("sustainability"). Thereafter, we provide an overview of the papers of this special issue and then end with a brief consideration of future research demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of a sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem is a novel concept related to entrepreneurial ecosystems that focus on fostering sustainable entrepreneurship. This paper advances our understanding of the topic by investigating the success factors for developing strong sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems. Particularly important aspects in this context are the role of entrepreneurial stakeholders and regional culture for the perceptions of sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems. Using sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems in Graz, Austria, and Wuppertal, Germany, as an empirical base, a quantitative study is carried out. Based on a literature review, a set of hypotheses is developed and tested. The findings highlight the importance of regional entrepreneurial culture as well as tailored stakeholder support and collaboration in sustainable entrepreneurship for creating strong sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the tacit knowledge sharing (TKS) problem with particular reference to knowledge-intensive firms (KIFs), a topic that deserves consideration given the role of tacit knowledge as a driver of business model innovation. The paper investigates individual perceptions about knowledge sharing (KS) at the team level, analysing the points of view of both team members (TMs) and team leaders (TLs) of an Italian KIF. The awareness of these perceptions represents an important antecedent to gain better TKS and their investigation a perspective that has not been considered by previous studies. The research is based on interviews with company TMs and on surveys through questionnaires submitted to TMs and TLs to investigate their perceptions and attitudes regarding TKS. The results from both show a good KS intention despite low organisational investment in KS tools, lack of time to devote to training and low TM involvement in strategic objectives. It also emerged that the TMs' perceptions of the charisma of the leader was low. Moreover, the results suggest a low presence of transformational, charismatic and ethical leadership at the base of the so-called knowledge-oriented leader. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we review and comment upon the development of the literature on diversity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. In an overview of previous studies and various strands of literatures, we outline and argue that to better understand the intricate dynamic relationships between diversity, innovation, entrepreneurship, and regional development there is a strong need to further develop "the economics of spatial diversity." We further argue that this development may benefit from combining various literatures based upon sound economic micro-foundations, to develop a more absolute understanding of diversity and fulfill the need of more clear mechanisms for future empirical testing. Obviously, this is important both from a research point of view and in order to provide policymakers with a powerful set of analytical tools. We call for more analytical work and more high-quality empirical studies. With a set of papers, we believe this special issue to provide a contribution in this direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationship between corporate non-financial disclosure ratings, the Italian Legislative Decrees 231/2001 and 254/2016, and three outcomes of Italian listed firms: performance, risk and agency cost. Based on stakeholder–agency theory, this study conceptualizes the role of firms' non-financial disclosures in reducing asymmetric information and agency costs between managers and broad stakeholders. Utilizing the Standard Ethics Rating (SER) as a measure of firms' non-financial disclosure rating, this study finds that SER ratings are positively related to firm value and are negatively related to firms' risk and agency costs. This study also provides evidence that the adoption of Italian Legislative Decrees 231/2001 and 254/2016, along with external verifications from the SER of firms' non-financial disclosure, has a positive impact on firm outcomes. Corporate managers and investors should recognize the value added from regulations that foster non-financial disclosures and ratings issued by an independent rating agency (e.g., Standard Ethics) as they both enhance firm performance and reduce risk and agency costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent history reveals a series of rogue traders, jeopardizing their employers' assets and reputation. There have been instances of unauthorized acting in concert between traders, their supervisors and/or firms' decision makers and executives, resulting in collusive rogue trading. We explore organizational misbehaviour theory and explain three major collusive rogue trading events at National Australia Bank, JPMorgan with its London Whale and the interest reference rate manipulation/LIBOR scandal through a descriptive model of organizational/structural, individual and group forces. Our model draws conclusions on how banks can set up behavioural risk management and internal control frameworks to mitigate potential collusive rogue trading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the light of the recent adoption of social responsible activities by large exporters, this paper sets up a strategic trade policy model in which two national champions compete à la Cournot in a third country and both governments can tax or subsidise the production of its local champion and reconsiders the well-known result of the Prisoner's Dilemma game structure in which governments set subsidies for their exporters. We show that (1) multiple sub-game perfect equilibria emerge in which one government taxes, while the other one allows free trade, provided that firms' social concerns are sufficiently large and (2) the social welfare of both countries in the latter asymmetric equilibrium is higher than that under free trade. Our findings suggest that a free-trade regime is always the less efficient policy in industries characterised by large social concerns. Moreover, we analyse the impact of the firms' social concerns interacting with strategic trade policies on welfare effects, showing that the welfares of consumers and the world as a whole (resp., total welfare of producing countries) are a U-shaped (resp., an inverted U-shaped) function of the intensity of social concerns: this suggests that in some cases, rather unexpectedly, producing countries (resp. consumers) benefit (resp. are harmed) by raising firms' social concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the underlying drivers of US public pension funds' tendency to tilt their portfolios towards companies with stronger corporate social responsibility (CSR). Studying the equity holdings of large, internally managed US state pension funds, we find evidence that the political leaning of their beneficiaries and political pressures by state politicians affect funds' investment decisions. State pension funds from states with Democratic-leaning beneficiaries tilt their portfolios more strongly towards companies that perform well on CSR issues, and this tendency is intensified when the state government is dominated by Democratic state politicians. Moreover, we find that funds which tilt their portfolios towards companies with superior CSR scores generate a slightly higher return compared with their counterparts. Overall, our findings indicate that funds align their investment choices with the financial and non-financial interests of their beneficiaries when deciding whether to incorporate CSR into their equity allocations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to determine the relationships, if any, between the green ratings, deemed as eco-efficiency by employing a structural equations model (SEM) to determine the relationship between the Newsweek Green Rankings and the Global Fortune 500 Corporations. The methodology includes the analysis of four sustainability variables and four social responsibility variables evaluated in the Newsweek Green Rankings to study if there is a relationship between the implementation of such variables and the operational profitability performance and the possibility of the reduction of adverse risk effects in their continued operations. The objective of this paper is to provide empirical evidence that states the benefit of implementing eco-efficiency variables in their operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The firm develops its identity through actions that reflect its business strategy. Some of those actions are social and show the social commitment of the company. Hence, philanthropic actions could be incorporated into the core business, through the implementation of a specific corporate philanthropy strategy. The company would then need to measure its financial and non-financial effects to evaluate the effectiveness of this strategy. Philanthropic actions impact not only on the community but also on other stakeholders, for example employees, and it would be useful to identify and measure these effects. This paper describes an empirical study of 232 European companies. The findings show that a company's philanthropy strategies and the presence of women on the board impact on the attitude of its employees. Firms that have a corporate philanthropic strategy tend to have lower levels of labour controversies and incidents, with respect to those which apply discretional or sporadic philanthropic practices. The types of philanthropic practices adopted highlight and define the firm's corporate identity and foster trust among its employees. The results of this study have implications for the design and management of corporate philanthropy strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the increasingly active role of civic actors, there is often no possibility for them to participate in project planning and decision-making. This discrepancy leads to costly conflicts and even failures. Unfortunately, the literature on project stakeholder management does not have sufficient theoretical substantiation to address this issue. To fill this knowledge gap, we integrate the concepts of stakeholder salience, public participation, and nonmarket strategy, and apply them to two urban infrastructure projects in Germany. This study contributes to the literature in two dimensions. First, it offers a dynamic and conceptual model for project stakeholder management, providing explanations for different conflict intensities. Second, it advances each individual area of research. Examples include the identification and clustering of so-called nonmarket assets, an examination of the influence of nonmarket strategies on managers' perceptions of stakeholder salience, and the study of public participation in a corporate–political context, rather than a purely political one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates whether local gambling norms are associated with audit pricing. Using a religion-based measure of local social gambling norms, we find strong evidence that public firms located in U.S. counties with more liberal gambling norms exhibit higher levels of audit fees. This result is consistent with our view that, as an important external risk factor, clients' local gambling norms influence audit pricing decisions. Our findings are robust to a battery of sensitivity tests, including non-religion based measures of liberal gambling norms and a natural experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature provides evidence on the separate roles of injunctive and descriptive norms in explaining corporate financial reporting, ignoring that descriptive norms are likely endogenous and partly explained by injunctive norms. We jointly analyze the direct and indirect effects of religious social norms (an injunctive norm) via local crime rates (a descriptive norm) on financial reporting quality. We find that religious social norms relate negatively to corporate earnings management and tax avoidance. We also show that this association is partially explained by crime rates in the firm's geographical environment, underlining the indirect relation between religious social norms and financial reporting quality. Overall, the study highlights the importance of considering the interrelations between injunctive and descriptive norms when analyzing the effect of norms on corporate decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a signaling framework, we argue that ethical behavior as evidenced by charitable donations is viewed more positively by investors when seen not to be based on self-serving motives but rather on authentic generosity that builds moral capital. The affirmed religiosity of CEOs may make their ethical position more credible, while their embeddedness within a family business suggests that CEOs are backed by powerful owners with long-time horizons and a desire to build moral capital with stakeholders. We find in a study of market responses to 1572 corporate donations by S&P 1500 firms that financial markets react more positively to charitable initiatives from firms with religion-declared CEOs, but only if these are family businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the increasing role of socially responsible investing (SRI), but still limited participation of individual (i.e. small, retail) investors, the objective of this study is twofold: (i) We aim to identify investment barriers regarding SRI for individual investors and analyze to what extent these barriers vary across different investor groups. (ii) We analyze to what extent sustainability or transparency labels can help to overcome these barriers. To this end, we empirically analyze data from a survey and a stated choice experiment for a broad sample of financial decision makers in German households. The results suggest that a considerable amount of respondents can imagine to invest in a socially responsible manner, which is promising for policymakers and practitioners who aim to foster sustainable development and SRI. However, too high information costs are a severe barrier for potential future investors and a considerable share of respondents distrusts providers of socially responsible investment products. Banks, who could help to solve this problem, appear not to fulfill their role as intermediaries. But we find that labels might serve as a complement to banks. Especially sustainability certificates that confirm the consideration of sustainability criteria could decrease information costs and overcome at least some barriers for some investor groups, particularly for new investors. However, the results also suggest that a certain degree of basic knowledge and trust in providers of socially responsible investment products is required before labels work efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate reputation is an important management objective, bearing the potential to create sustainable competitive advantage, and many scholars have studied its impact on firm performance. However, its effect on the cost of equity has only recently begun to attract the attention of academic research. Empirical evidence is scarce, and the results are inconclusive. Applying a validated measure of reputation, we scrutinize its impact for a set of German blue-chip companies between 2005 and 2011. We show that higher levels of reputation are associated with a lower future cost of equity. While reputation improvements are not followed by a measurable short-term effect, reputational damages lead to a significant increase in the future cost of equity within 6 months. We interpret our findings against the backdrop of the previous studies, offering several explanations for diverging results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the increasing inclusion of ethics and compliance issues in corporate training, the business world remains rife with breaches of responsible management conduct. This situation indicates a knowledge–practice gap among professionals, i.e., a discrepancy between their knowledge of responsible management principles and their behavior in day-to-day business life. With this in mind, this paper addresses the formative, developmental question of how companies' ethics and compliance training programs should be organized in a manner that enhances their potential to be effective. Drawing on both the qualitative analysis of existing ethics and compliance training and the conceptual literature on behavioral ethics, a framework is proposed that consecutively aligns various types of training into a comprehensive ethics and compliance training program. The strengths and limitations of the suggested framework are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]