Orientation: The available literature has revealed a polarised picture regarding the effects of race on CEO remuneration. This division centres on whether race is a beneficial factor or not with regard to the level and sensitivity of remuneration received. Introducing South Africa’s affirmative labour policies and the growing societal calls to better explain executive remuneration creates the unique opportunity to examine the effects of race on CEO pay. Research purpose: The purpose of the research centred on two important themes. Firstly the research sought to investigate the effects of race on the sensitivity of executive pay to corporate performance. Secondly the effects of race on the level and structure of executive pay was probed. Motivation for the study: The primary motivation of the study centred on determining whether race is has an affect, if any, on the remuneration paid to CEOs in South Africa. This will assist in understanding whether the affirmative polices implemented in South Africa have made any impact in the top level of executive remuneration. Research design: The study was designed to be quantitative, descriptive and longitudinal in nature utilising valid secondary data sources. The BFA Macgregor online financial database was selected as the most appropriate source of both corporate performance information and directors’ remuneration. Nineteen black CEOs were identified along with a random sample of 45 white CEOs. Following the data been analysed for reliability and validity it was then subject to primary and secondary statistical tests to determine significance and correlation strength. Main findings/results: All components of South African CEO remuneration studied were found to strongly correlate to PAT and EBITDA and to a lesser degree ROE and HEPS. ROE and HEPS have shown correlation strength growth in recent years. This collection of measures reflects a balanced basket of accounting-­‐based and non-­‐ accounting based measures. Black and white CEO mean remuneration when compared was found to have no significant difference due to race. A notable difference found was the higher degree of pay-­‐performance sensitivity and variability seen within the black CEO sample. Practical/Managerial implications: King III compels boards and remuneration committees to ensure remuneration of directors is fair and reasonable, sensitive to performance and aligned with the strategy of the organisation. Ensuring realistic pay-­‐ performance sensitivities are not just a corporate governance requirement but also help alleviate principle-­‐agent issues while correctly incentivising the CEO. Boards looking to appoint black or minority CEOs should continue to remunerate in a equitable and fair manner and be aware of such mental biases such as the “inverse Matthew effect” and other social out-­‐group biases especially when evaluating performance. Contribution: The study showed that race doesn’t affect the level of CEO remuneration but does impact on the pay-­‐performance sensitivity and the variability. The difference in sensitivity and variability could indicate the presence of mental biases such as the “inverse Matthew effect” and other social out-­‐group biases when evaluating performance. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lmgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

This study examined the critical competencies and challenges evidenced by women in senior leadership roles, particularly women occupying chief executive officer (CEO) roles. Their differences from other women in senior leadership is also explored. Prior studies have indicated that there is an under-representation of women in top leadership positions especially at a chief executive level (also known as the C-Suite). In this phenomenological study, I engaged with participants at a subjective level to inquire into and explore their unique feelings and considerations in order to gain a better understanding of and provide an all-inclusive perspective on the critical competencies women in such leadership roles are required to have and the challenges they experience. I explored the narratives of 23 participants who had risen to the highest levels in their career trajectories; of these participants, 14 were women (five of whom were chief executive officers) and nine were men. The information the executive women provided during the interviews was evidence of their success, efficacy and tenacity. The inclusion of male participants in this qualitative study ensured that dense and rich data could be obtained given the fact that most leadership positions in organisations are still occupied by men. My findings confirmed the findings of research scholars that women of today occupying leading positions in organisations still face the challenge of having to cope with hindrances such as stereotyping, cultural perceptions, political barriers, gender bias, work-life balance, remuneration partiality, glass ceilings and inadequate support structures. However, contrary to the existing literature, which focuses on prevailing competencies that are best suited to leadership, my research paid particular attention to competencies exclusive to women in senior leadership positions. My study also explored significant facets of competencies at chief executive level in respect of three dimensions, namely, business capability, relationships and traits. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Human Resource Management / MCom / Unrestricted

In this dissertation, I first suggest an extension of the managerial rents model and more specifically the managerial skills typology that it offers. Building on research in international business, I propose adding country-specific skills (CSS) to this typology in addition to firm-specific, industry-specific, and generic skills. I define CSS as managers’ abilities that are applicable and specific to a particular national institutional context. Such skills are distinct from the other three types identified and are likely to influence managers’ performance and the performance of their firms. So if CSS are distinct skills, what are the implications for strategy and international business research? In an attempt to respond to this question, I conduct two empirical essays in which I examine the implications of this refinement of the typology of managerial skills for CEO selection and firms’ mergers and acquisitions (M&A) strategy. In the first empirical essay, I puzzle at the fact that although CSS constitute a barrier to high-level executive mobility across countries, there have been a growing number of foreign-born CEOs being appointed across the globe. Why are these individuals being selected for the post of CEO? Using information on the appointment of foreign-born and national CEOs from 2005 to 2010 among global 500 companies, I show that internationalization pressures help explain their selection and that two types of firms are likely to appoint foreign leaders: highly internationalized firms and firms that are likely to internationalize. In the second empirical essay, I examine the strategic implications of country-specific skills. Employing the same sample as the one used in the first empirical essay, I demonstrate that given that their mindset is likely to be less focused on firms’ home market, foreign-born CEOs may be prone to institute more changes in firms’ cross-border M&A strategy than their domestic counterparts. I also theorize on the moderating influence of CEOs’ insiderness.

Recently there has been a broad discussion with regards to Corporate Social Responsibility, its general purpose, and how it is publicly disclosed. The responsibilities for the engagement in CSR activities have been primarily vested with the CEO of organizations. Previous studies suggested an existing link between CEO’s CSR Engagement and TBL Performance. The dissertation aimed to explore the relationship between the CEO’s CSR Engagement and TBL Performance and to investigate the role of a decentralized organizational structure in this relation. A quantitative research approach in the form of archival data was carried out to measure CEO CSR Engagement and Decentralization of the 50 largest German stock-listed corporations by analyzing annual financial reports. Also, to measure total TBL Performance, media disclosure of the 50 largest German stock-listed corporations in the German newspaper Handelsblatt was analyzed. The results of the study showed that increased levels of the aspect Stakeholder Responsibility (a component of CEO CSR Engagement) positively impacted TBL Performance. Also, the study results indicated that a low level of Decentralization positively moderated the relationship between the aspect External Risk and Engagement (a component of CEO CSR Engagement) and TBL Performance. The dissertation extends already existing CEO leadership literature and measures organizational sustainability performance based on the concept of the Triple Bottom Line. Also, the application of organizational structure of Decentralization as a moderator between CEO CSR Engagement and TBL Performance contributes to already existing literature. By applying factor analysis to the CEO CSR related aspects to objectify the gathered data, this dissertation contributes methodologically.

The CEO of a large listed firm is often under public scrutiny due to listing requirements of stock exchanges of the respective country as well as pressures from stakeholders. Of these stakeholders, shareholders are mostly interested in the firm performance as it relates to their investment to determine if their investment is still worthwhile as well as to determine its returns. A CEO has the duty of ensuring that a firm meets its set targets and the responsibility of having to account for any deviations from these targets. In a firm with sound corporate governance measures, any underperformance experienced by the firm should result in the CEO being replaced and when targets met, the CEO being rewarded. However this is not always the case and this study considers the key determinants of CEO turnover as it later aims to determine what these key determinants are in South African JSE-listed firms as well as the correlation with CEO turnover. This study examines the relationship between ownership structure and board characteristics on CEO-firm performance sensitivity. The population for this study was 60 companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The period covered for this study runs over 5 years from 2013 to 2017. This period was chosen mainly because data for some companies was missing for the period beyond 2017. Thus, excluding companies that had no data for the period beyond 2017 could have reduced the sample further and would have made the analysis less meaningful. The study reports three important findings. The first is that CEO turnover is insensitive to firm performance, irrespective of whether it is an accounting-based firm performance (i.e CEO turnover vs EBIT/Assets ratio) or market-based measure of firm performance (lagged stock returns, 18, 24, and 36 months respectively). Second, the findings of this study show that CEO age and institutional ownership are inversely related to CEO turnover. In addition, board size becomes a significant determinant of CEO turnover when the model in includes returns lagged over 36 months or when the EBIT/Assets ratio is part of the Model (see models 7 and 8), although this is only at 10% level of significance. Third, board insiders and firm size are found to be unrelated to CEO turnover.

Cette thèse a pour objectif principal d’apporter une contribution à la littérature concernant la structure et l’efficacité du conseil d’administration (CA). Elle s’articule autour de quatre chapitres. Le premier chapitre est une revue de la littérature, tandis que les trois autres portent sur des questions de recherche distinctes. La première étude présentée dans le deuxième chapitre de cette thèse a pour objectif d'étudier les déterminants de la taille du CA, de l'indépendance de ses membres et de la dualité des fonctions de direction et de présidence du CA. Les principaux apports de cette étude peuvent être résumés comme suit : tout d'abord, nos résultats sont fondés sur l'analyse d'un des plus grands échantillons utilisés dans ce domaine, avec à peu près 16000 observations (entreprises-années) pour près de 2300 entreprises américaines observées de 1997 à 2010. De plus, sur le plan méthodologique, une batterie de tests statistiques a été réalisée afin de vérifier la robustesse de nos résultats, notamment des tests tenant compte des biais d'hétérogénéité et de simultanéité. Enfin, cette étude est probablement la première à démontrer que le passage de la loi SOX a limité la capacité des dirigeants à influencer la composition du CA. La deuxième étude s’attache à analyser les deux principales fonctions du CA, qui sont le conseil au chef d'entreprise et le contrôle de ses activités. Ainsi, comprendre la capacité du CA à remplir ces fonctions est une question fondamentale que nous nous proposons d’approfondir. Cette étude vient enrichir la littérature émergente sur la fonction consultative du CA en fournissant de nouveaux éléments de preuves sur l'importance de cette fonction dans la création de valeur de l'entreprise. Ces résultats apportent également des éclairages sur le conflit potentiel existant entre les deux principales fonctions du CA. Enfin, cette étude s'inscrit dans le courant de pensée qui cherche à évaluer l'impact des caractéristiques des entreprises sur l'efficacité de leurs structures de gouvernance. Le principal objectif de la troisième étude présentée dans le dernier chapitre de cette thèse est de déterminer si la rémunération à base d’actions des administrateurs peut affecter les décisions futures en matière d'acquisition, et le cas échéant, comment. Les résultats de cette étude apportent un nouvel éclairage concernant la rémunération des administrateurs. Cette étude met en exergue l'importance des pratiques de rémunération incitative sous forme d’actions et d’options pour les membres du CA. Par ailleurs, bien que de nombreuses études aient été réalisées afin d'analyser la relation existante entre les mesures incitatives à destination des administrateurs et la performance de l'entreprise, notre étude est l'une des premières à explorer les mécanismes à travers lesquels ces mesures peuvent influencer la valeur de l'entreprise. / This thesis aims at providing contributions to the existing literature on the structure and effectiveness of corporate boards. It comprises three essays that address distinct research questions. The first study examines the trends and determinants of corporate board structure using a panel data sample. This study extends the existing literature on the determinants of board structure in three important ways. First, our results are based on one of the largest samples used in this area, with almost 16,000 firm-year observations for nearly 2,300 firms observed from 1997 to 2010. Second, in terms of methodology, a set of statistical tests was performed in order to check the robustness of our findings, including tests that account for heterogeneity and simultaneity. Finally, this is probably the first study to show that the enactment of SOX has reduced the ability of CEOs in influencing board composition. Specifically, while SOX does not fundamentally alter the economic determinants of board structure, our results show that the documented negative impact of well performing CEOs on board independence in the pre-SOX era is no longer significant post-SOX. In the second study, the principal objective is to investigate the effects of advisory directors' presence on the board and monitoring intensity on the board's overall effectiveness in value creation. This study makes some significant contributions to the literature. First, it complements and extends the growing literature on the board's advisory function by providing strong new evidence on the importance of this board function in value creation. Second, it also provides some evidence on the potential conflict between the two primary functions of corporate boards. Finally, this study adds to the literature that attempts to assess the impact of firm and industry characteristics on the effectiveness of specific governance structures. The last study has as main objective to examine the relation between director compensation structure and shareholder interests in the context of acquisitions. This study contributes to the literature in several ways. First, we add to the recent but burgeoning literature that deals with the determinants of director compensation. Guided by theoretical work in this area, we show that director compensation is mainly consistent with firm's needs for monitoring and advising. Second, we extend the body of research that highlights the importance of equity-based compensation by providing evidence that the use of incentive-based compensation schemes to reward directors also matters. Finally, although many studies have examined the relation between directors' incentives and firm performance, this work is one of the first to examine the channels through which directors' equity-based pay affects shareholders' value.

Background: The recent decades there has been a big shift in the focus of accounting standards, going from mostly being based on historical cost to being more based on fair value. How to account for goodwill has been widely discussed for many years. Assets, such as goodwill, that are never traded individually are difficult to assign a fair value to. This opens up for discretionary behavior and earnings management. One of the foundations of financial reporting is that it should contribute to informed decisions, thus the numbers need to be accurate. Goodwill has become an increasing part of firms’ balance sheets, making up 19,3% of the assets of firms listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. Purpose: This study’s purpose is to examine how impairment factors affect discretionary goodwill impairment decisions in Swedish Large Cap and Mid Cap firms. The first part is to examine the occurrence of goodwill impairment, and the second part is to examine the size of goodwill impairment losses. Method: The study examines Swedish Large Cap and Mid Cap firms during the years 2006-2012. After excluding some companies for various reasons, we are left with a sample size of 483 firm years. First a logistic regression is run, to investigate what indicators causes firms to make goodwill impairments. The concepts examined are CEO Change, Big Bath, Income Smoothing and Leverage, operationalized into variables and checked to see if they have a relationship with the dependent variable goodwill impairment. Firm size, change in return on assets, change in sales and finally industry are used as control variables. The second regression examines what influences the amount of goodwill impaired, looking at the same independent variables as in the first one, using a censored tobit regression. Conclusion: The result shows that two variables, Leverage and Big Bath have a significant influence on the occurrence of goodwill impairment. Both variables show a negative influence on the dependent variable, meaning that when they increase, goodwill impairment are less likely to happen. Accepting a lower level of significance, CEO change showed a positive influence on goodwill impairment.When looking at the 91 firm years when impairment occurs, we see that two variables have a significant influence on the size of the goodwill impairments, that is Leverage and Big Bath.

No description available.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and compare how women and men in a CEO position have experienced the recruitment process for the function as CEO. The study aims to identify similarities and differences between women and men's experience of contributing factors to the fact that they were recruited to the position of CEO. The study also intends to create an understanding of what opportunities and obstacles women and men have experienced that have affected their path to the CEO position. The study is comparative and the empirical material consists of ten semi- structured interviews with five women and five men who have been recruited to the position of CEO. The study shows that the most central factors in being recruited to the CEO position is to be a part of a network, have access to social capital and have "good success stories". This is described by both our female and male respondents. However, no typical process can be identified. The recruitment process is perceived as “solid” and “waterproof” by the majority of respondents. The study shows that four out of five women have been recruited internally, thus, they have been included in networks internally. Among our male respondents, four out of five have been recruited externally, indicating that they have been included in networks outside the organization. We found that women have experienced that they have been given opportunities internally, which has contributed to them advancing to the CEO position. In contrast to women, men describe that opportunities create the individual, they are not given. The results of our study show that being part of significant networks provides opportunities. The respondents experience age as an obstacle, that they have been young in senior positions is perceived to be problematic. No respondent experiences any obstacles during the recruitment process. / Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka och jämföra hur kvinnor och män på vd- position upplevt rekryteringsprocessen till posten som vd. Studien ämnar identifiera likheter och skillnader mellan kvinnor och mäns upplevelse av bidragande faktorer till att de rekryterats till posten som vd. Studien avser även skapa förståelse för vilka möjligheter och hinder kvinnor respektive män upplevt påverka deras väg till vd- posten. Studien är komparativ och det empiriska materialet består av tio semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem kvinnor och fem män som rekryterats till vd- posten. I studien framkommer att det mest centrala för att rekryteras till vd-posten är att vara en del av nätverk, ha tillgång till socialt kapital och ha ”good success stories”. Detta beskrivs av både våra kvinnliga och manliga respondenter. Någon typisk process kan inte identifieras. Rekryteringsprocessen upplevs som ”gedigen” och ”vattentät” av majoriteten av respondenterna. Studien visar att fyra av fem kvinnor rekryterats internt, de har således inkluderats i nätverk internt. Bland våra manliga respondenter har fyra av fem rekryterats externt, vilket tyder på att de inkluderats i nätverk utanför organisationen. Vi finner att kvinnor upplevt att de fått möjligheter internt, vilket varit bidragande till att de avancerat till vd-posten. Männen beskriver i motsats till kvinnorna att möjligheter skapar individen, de ges inte. Vår studies resultat visar att vara del av betydelsefulla nätverk ger möjligheter. Respondenterna upplever ålder som ett hinder, att de varit unga på seniora poster upplevs varit problematiskt. Ingen respondent upplever några hinder under rekryteringsprocessen.

Intresset för frivillig rapportering har under de senaste åren ökat. Tidigare studier har fått varierande resultat avseende vad som påverkar företags frivilliga rapportering, men managers personliga egenskaper har antagits kunna ha en påverkan. Syftet med studien är att förklara hur personliga egenskaper, som CEO:er respektive CFO:er i svenska börsnoterade företag besitter, påverkar den frivilliga rapporteringen i företagens årsredovisningar. Såväl påverkan på den totala mängden frivillig information som på vilka kategorier av frivillig information som läggs vikt vid studeras. Studien visade att kvinnliga CFO:er bidrar positivt till den totala mängden frivillig rapportering och att CFO:ers personliga egenskaper generellt har en större påverkan än CEO:ers personliga egenskaper på den frivilliga rapporteringen. Managers personliga egenskaper visades påverka den totala mängden frivillig rapportering mer än vilka kategorier som läggs vikt vid. Dock visade resultatet också på att agentteorin och de systemorienterade teorierna bättre förklarar vad som påverkar frivillig rapportering än vad managers personliga egenskaper gör. Studien bidrar till ökad kunskap om vad som påverkar företagens frivilliga rapportering. Genom att utgå från företagens CEO respektive CFO bidrar studien med förståelse för hur personliga egenskaper hos dessa påverkar den frivilliga rapporteringen, både den totala mängden och vilka kategorier av information som läggs vikt vid.