This thesis provides an empirical investigation on how different public listing locations affect the CEO (chief executive officer)’s pay of Chinese SOEs (State Owned Enterprises) and whether such a pay differential would in turn affect the listing location choice by those firms, which have not received much attention in the current literature. In particular, we focus on two stock markets, the mainland (including Shenzhen and Shanghai) A-share market and Hong Kong H-share market. Unlike what have been found in many other markets, where firms listed in the foreign markets can normally enjoy a price premium, Chinese firms listed in the Hong Kong market (H-share) usually face a discount in prices comparing to what they can get in the domestic stock markets (A-share). So it is a real puzzle why they are eager to be listed in Hong Kong. Explanations have been sought in the past regarding to access to international capital markets and reputation or image effects for the Chinese firms. Our study contributes to the current oversea-listing literature by examining CEOs’ personal factors that affect listing location choice of SOEs in China. In this thesis, we aim to examine the association between CEO’s pay and different listing locations. Our sample covers all the Chinese listed SOEs in both A-share and H-share over the period of 1990-2009. First, we examined the effect of different listing locations on CEO’s pay and found that a positive CEO’s pay differential exists for H-share listing other things being equal, which means a wage premium for H-share CEOs. Furthermore, our evidences also support the hypothesis that such a wage premium does provide an incentive for CEOs to choose to list in Hong Kong.

This thesis includes estimating the probability of informed trading, PIN, developed by Easley, Kiefer and O’Hara (1996, 1997a, 1997b), for a large sample of listed firms in China from 2002 to 2008, and I use PIN to explore two independent research questions in corporate finance. First, the probability of informed trading is applied to explain the discount in value for firms with diversified business operations. Although aiming to increase firm value, the corporate diversification decision usually results in a firm value discount, for a variety of reasons, one of which is the transparency problem. My study directly tests the relation between the information asymmetry revealed from the stock market and the firm value discount due to diversification decision. The results show that the corporate diversification decisions result in a lower firm value in China, mainly because the diversified firms suffer from a higher level of information asymmetry or a lower level of transparency. After controlling for the measure of information asymmetry, the strategy of diversification itself does not reduce firm value. Second, the probability of informed trading is applied to explain the payperformance sensitivity of CEO compensation in Chinese listed firms. The payperformance sensitivity measures the change in managerial compensation based on the change in shareholder wealth. A higher information asymmetry helps and encourages shareholders to spend more on incentivizing the management team. My results show that higher level information asymmetry is associated with higher payperformance sensitivity of CEOs in China. The result also holds if information asymmetry is approximated by analysts’ forecast errors. According to the estimates of PIN in this thesis, Chinese firms are shown to exhibit a higher level of information asymmetry than what has been found in the U.S. market. The thesis ends with a brief discussion of the results and what future research could follow.

In essay 1, I investigate the association of place attachment and financial reporting quality. Management characteristics affect a wide range of corporate decisions, including decisions affecting financial reporting quality; however, the influence of managerial place attachment on corporate decision-making has received relatively little attention - even though place attachment is thought to play a significant role in forming individual identity. Place attachment affects the decisions that individuals make with regards to social and environmental policies, lifestyle, and, in the corporate context, firmlevel policies. Because firms hire local CEOs and CFOs five to eight times more often than expected if geography were irrelevant to the matching process, the question of how managerial place attachment affects financial reporting outcomes is an important one. I investigate the effect of managerial place attachment on financial reporting quality in a sample of publicly traded U.S. firms. My findings indicate that firms with place attached CEOs display higher financial reporting quality, indicating a significant caretaking bond between CEO and stakeholders. CFOs, on the other hand, are marginally associated with lower financial reporting quality, indicating that they are more likely than CEOs to extract personal gain when they are local to their firm headquarters. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Stock options increasingly feature as part of CEO compensation, and there is evidence that CEOs of South African listed target companies engage in the practice of awarding themselves more options prior to takeover. This finding is consistent with CEO behaviour of foreign companies as explained by literature. After the recent financial crisis of 2008, there is a greater likelihood that financially stable companies might consider acquiring struggling companies with attractive potential future earnings. By gaining insight into the practices of stock option grants to CEOs, acquiring companies can ensure fair practice as well as not paying an undue premium for a target company. This study was conducted using a sample of 39 Johannesburg stock exchange (JSE) listed target companies, which were acquired during the period 2005- 2009. The focus was on the number of options awarded prior to the announcement date of the takeover in relation to subsequent options awarded. A median test, together with a Chi-squared test was used to evaluate the independence of option grants prior to acquisition and the actual acquisition transaction. Strong evidence was found that these two activities are not independent. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

This qualitative multiple-case study was designed to explore how CEOs in philanthropy learn to make strategic decisions. The study builds off the following premises: (1) as part of their role, CEOs need to make critical decisions in a complex and rapidly changing environment; (2) due to the role of a CEO there are power dynamics at play, and these may have an impact on how CEOs are able to engage in conversation; and (3) due to the staff reporting to the CEO and the CEO reporting to the board, they are essentially peerless within their respective organization, possibly contributing to a sense of isolation. The research site of this study was across a number of organizations, one for each participant. There were three primary sources of data: semi-structured interviews, data collection of publicly available documents, and critical incident reports. Key findings included that: (1) all participants engaged with staff and/or the Board of directors before making a strategic decision, either to obtain buy-in or get information needed to make the decision; (2) informal learning was the primary way participants learned what activities they needed to partake in, in order to make a critical decision; and (3) having full authority and responsibility helped CEOs in their decision-making, while power and other interpersonal dynamics hindered a CEOs ability to make a critical decision. Two main categories of CEOs emerged during the data collection process, those who were deemed Reflective and those who were Action-Oriented. Although not part of this research study’s original design, the data collection took place during the COVID-19 pandemic and also after a resurgence of attention to police brutality against Black people in the United States and other violence towards historically marginalized groups. These themes were prevalent throughout the data gathered for this study and findings and analysis. The overarching recommendation emanating from this research is that succession plans should be put in place in order to best develop potential candidates for the role of CEO.

A research report submitted to The School of Accountancy, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of Witwatersrand in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Commerce in Accounting / The role and importance of a company’s CEO has become an increasingly important topic of research. The executive leadership has an important role to play in defining the strategy of the firm and its ability to compete. The value relevance of the CEO of a company and thus any changes pertaining thereto is understood to be due to developments in information technology and reporting requirements. This characterizes an information environment whereby investors are better equipped at making more informed investment decisions. The current business has become increasingly more competitive and volatile. In response to this, market participants place greater value on the importance of the CEO of the company. The CEO of a company may possess the ability to lever the company above its competitors through the development and implementation of company strategy. This research report assesses how market participants react in response to CEO appointment announcements using a sample of 105 announcements using an event study methodology. The value relevance pertaining hereto can be ascertained by observing the abnormal returns of the company’s share price on the date of the announcement. In furtherance of this assessment, the sample is disaggregated in accordance to event specific, firm-specific and non-event specific factors. Prior research suggests that this analysis facilitates more robust inferences to be made on how market participants react to CEO appointment announcements. In both Africa and South Africa, a strong body of literature is yet to be established on this effect. In general, findings display significant market reactions in response to the CEO change, thus suggesting that market participants perceive the CEO change as a significant event in the life of the firm. On the day of the event strong positive abnormal returns were generating thereby indicating that investors react positively to the appointment of a new CEO. However, the negative cumulative abnormal returns displayed in the periods before and after the event can be interpreted as the contrary. In addressing these conflicting views, the analysis of share performance in relation to firm-specific, event-specific and non-event related factors proves useful. The findings in this part of the section explain that negative returns are due to increased uncertainty over the future of the company, the positive returns on announcement date are found to be strongly associated with the type of successor appointed. These findings further reveal market participants react significantly strongly to a CEO change as seen by high negative cumulative abnormal returns. These findings contextualize how the value attached to CEOs by market participants vary in relation to different conditions. / MT2017

Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) have become recognised as brands in the academic and popular domain, but little is known about the relationship between these senior manager ¿brands¿ and the corporate brand of the organisation they represent. Since stakeholders associate the CEO¿s reputation with that of the company, they may negatively or positively affect each other, and there is little research into this dynamic. Indeed there is only a limited understanding about the field of people branding in general and much less into CEO brands in particular. Consequently this doctoral thesis investigates the people and CEO brands phenomena, the relationships between CEO, corporate brand and stakeholder¿s self-image and how these can be effectively managed in order to enhance brand equity for the company. Based on a critical realist perspective, this research examines traditional product brand elements from the literature and develops a new conceptual framework for people brands, which is subsequently applied to CEOs. Furthermore a survey is performed with business school students. The findings are analysed by using content analysis, descriptive statistics and by developing and testing a Structural Equation Model. The contribution to knowledge is threefold. Firstly a conceptual framework of people brands is constructed. Second this model is applied to CEO brands. Third five propositions about stakeholder perceptions of CEO brand differentiation and equity are empirically tested. The main findings are that visual presentation is not the main factor to differentiate CEO brands from each other, nor is their association with the company. Positive perceptions of corporate brands can influence the reputation of the CEO brand and lead to an enhancement of their brand equity. Importantly this indicates that stakeholders do not distinguish between CEO and company. Brand equity is also created if there is a relationship between stakeholder self-image and company brand, which in turn can improve the reputation of the CEO brand. Finally brand equity is enhanced through stakeholder perceptions of an ideal self-image. Overall this research has important implications for academia and managerial practice as it extends the knowledge about people and CEO brands and provides an insight into ways in which the relationships between CEO, company and stakeholders can be managed to enhance brand equity for the company

This research explores leadership effectiveness in organisations in Kuwait from the perspective of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs). This is an area that has been neglected by the extant literature, and no integrated model for assessing CEO effectiveness exists for us to fully understand the phenomenon. Based on a positivist qualitative research approach, evidence was drawn from 16 CEOs using semi-structured interviews. The evidence was corroborated by using data obtained from participant observations of two CEOs working in the same organisation as the researcher. The results indicated that CEOs perceive leadership effectiveness as driving execution and not necessarily the realisation of goals themselves. Their experiences of leadership lead to CEOs in Kuwait believing that leadership effectiveness depends on their leadership style, relationship with the Board and the Executives, experience and family ground, societal and organisational culture, the business environment and CEO characteristics. On the basis of the participants’ perceptions of leadership effectiveness, it is recommended that CEO leadership development in Kuwait should focus on these areas, as this should equip CEOs to be effective in formulating clear visions and executing strategies to enable economic development of the country, and this should help them to compete globally. As the study focused on private and public companies, future research could consider CEOs from governmental and not-for-profit organisations to expand the sample of CEOs.

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The purpose of this study was to identify perceptions of selected two-year and four-year higher education chief executive officers as to the sources of stress associated with the presidency, and what, if any, coping strategies they have developed. This study was guided by the following research questions: 1. What perceptions do selected two-year and four-year higher education chief executive officers have of sources of stress associated with their job that may cause distress? 2. What is the degree of distress associated with each source of stress as perceived by each individual? 3. What are the coping strategies utilized by each individual when distress replaces the normal tension and pressure associated with his job? A survey packet containing a descriptive questionnaire and open-ended questions was used to determine the perceptions of selected two-year and four-year public chief executive officers in the states of Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. Five Carnegie Classifications of colleges and universities were selected in order to establish a control group (N = 140) with similar types of distress that may be associated with the presidency based on the level of the degree offered and the comprehensiveness of the mission of the institution. The data collected from the 92 useable returned questionnaires were entered into a data base for computer analysis and calculations. Specifically, descriptive statistics of the mean, standard deviation and Z-score were used to calculate the degree of distress for each source of stress. Open-ended questions were used to clarify responses on the questionnaire and to examine coping strategies utilized by the respondents. Based on the results, eight primary sources of job stress were identified. The top three were budget, state coordinating/governing agency and career conflict with spouse. Positive and potential negative initial and preferred coping strategies were listed by the respondents. In conclusion, presidents were able to identify primary sources of stress · in order to develop positive coping techniques. Further research is needed to explore stress and coping within the leadership of higher education. / Ed. D.