Most corporations today have an organizational framework that includes a separation between ownership and management of the company. Along with the Board of Directors, the chief executive officer (CEO) usually has the power to make significant decisions on corporate policy and also takes personal responsibility for the performance of the company. Thus the selection of an optimal CEO is a crucial business decision, and is the focus of this management study. When undertaking the procedures for CEO succession, the members of the Board must select appropriate candidates for the position, as well as deciding upon the CEO¡¦s job responsibilities. The Board evaluates the extent to which the various candidates¡¦ capabilities and experiences match the needs of the corporation. After discussing the pros and cons of each candidate, the Board selects the most appropriate individual for the position. However, certain circumstances often exist that serve to affect this decision process. Specifically, the quality and timing of Board meetings may have a serious detrimental affect on selecting the optimal candidate. By analyzing the literature reviews and annual reports of 682 public companies in Taiwan in 2003, three succession logics of selecting a CEO can be observed: 1) social relationship, 2) political power, and 3) rational capability. From these three logics, the following conclusions can be drawn: 1) The social relationship has the most influence on the selection outcome, with political power acting as the second most influential aspect, and management capability as the third; 2) The influence of the Chairman¡¦s abstract power, as well as his ownership of stock, do not have an obvious influence on the selection outcome, though the Chairman¡¦s control over Board seats has a statistically significant impact on CEO selection; 3) A CEO¡¦s social relationship can not be replaced by his management capability; 4) CEO¡¦s social relationship and stock ownership both have high positive correlation with his involvement of the Board, while the Chairman¡¦s power and the CEO¡¦s management capability don¡¦t.

This paper tests the relationship between ownership/leadership structures and stock returns for firms listed in Taiwan. A ¡§Governance Index¡¨ is built based on four different aspects of the company¡¦s governance structure: 1.) CEO duality, 2.) Size of the board of directors, 3.) Managements¡¦ shareholdings and 4.) Block shareholders¡¦ holding. This index is used as a proxy measure of the effectiveness of corporate governance mechanism. I show that firms identified by the governance index as under sounding governance outperform those under poor governance. The results indicate that the corporate governance index built in this study is a valid measure in evaluating the effectiveness of corporate governance of firms in Taiwan. I demonstrate one additional application of the governance index constructed in this dissertation by showing that firms (identified by the governance index) with strong corporate governance mechanism effectively constrain the propensity of managers to engage in earnings management and improve the quality of reported earnings. Corporate governance is an effective monitoring device of the quality of financial reporting. Firms with poor governance structure are more likely to avoid reporting small losses by reporting small positive earnings. Furthermore, the magnitude of abnormal accruals is significantly related to governance level. Firms with weak corporate governance structures are more likely to use discretionary accruals to raise reported earnings.

Abstract Chief executive officer (CEO) compensation is a potent instrument through which people and investors can improve their understanding of organization substance and symbol. Good compensation package can not only improve the performance of worker but also lift employees¡¦ commitment to work. However, we are not so sure about the positive association between CEO compensation and firm performance because of the existing of ¡§agency theory¡¨. The degrees of alignment of interests with those of the agents in the firm who control the major decisions in the firm are also different. This gives rise to potential conflicts among the stakeholders, and these incentive conflicts have now come to know as ¡§agency (principal-agent) problem¡¨. Being desirous of the problem, this thesis reviews and integrates the literature on CEO compensation, focusing on both determinants and consequences of this complex, often controversial phenomenon. Thus, a model of the determinants of CEO compensation is presented and investigated. Based on a sample of 422 from Taiwan listed companies, I investigated the data both from Taiwan Economic Journal (TEJ) and the annual report of each listed company to combine in order to examine the compensation model. The definition of CEO in this thesis is one of the following three identities: chairmen of the board, general managers, and people who serve as both positions, that is, CEO duality. Hypotheses are tested and the study finds that CEO compensation has complex links to several factors: firm sizes, performance, stock return, and board stock ownership. The main factors for deciding CEO compensation are economic determinants and the only significant board control variable is board stock ownership. Contrary to some foreign literature, the index of duality is not significant at all since that people who serve as both chairmen and general manager obtain below average compensation level than others. In summary, the thesis provides the different results of a matrix of different identities and industries, and hopes to have some contribution to following research.

This study utilized an activity competency model (ACM) to investigate the perceived importance of managerial activities and skills/knowledge required of chief executive officer (CEO) from the healthcare industry. A survey instrument was designed based on the ACM for data collection that encompasses twenty initial managerial activities and fourteen managerial competences required to effectively perform these management activities. These activities were identified through a literature review, job analysis, and iterative personal interviews with domain experts. The results from this study have implications for healthcare management development, training, and management career planning. These results can also serve as guideline for recruiting the right healthcare CEO.

Current study is based on literature of Employer Brand studies. This research is conducted by implementing questionnaire. By using ¡§the most admired entrepreneur¡¨ from a renowned, quality business magazine in Taiwan, author has looked into the perception of college and post graduate senior students (NCCU, NCTU, FJU, TKU, NKUAS, NUTN) regarding CEO celebrities and their companies. The study has showed that most dimensions of Cable and Turban study have positive effect on Organization Attractiveness and potential employee¡¦s job hunting attempt. The result of current research has proven CEO celebrity¡¦s positive effect on human resource the corporate can recruit.

This study examines the existence of pay-performance sensitivity in total compensation and bonus during the financial crisis, using data between 2007-2010 from Swedish 196 listed firms. We perform panel data regression analysis of CEO compensation on financial performance measured as stock returns. Our results indicate that there is, although not significant, a weak positive relationship between CEO compensation and firm performance during 2007-2010. However during 2009-2010 in a market state defined as post-crisis we find weak negative pay-performance sensitivity at a significance level of 10 %. Nevertheless, as regards to the bonus paid to executives there was a significantly positive relationship relative bonus % and firm performance. These results contribute to our understanding of the pay-performance sensitivity in times of financial disturbance, highly relevant to the existing debate considering CEO compensation.

This paper examines the impact of CEO turnover from an internal capital allocation perspective. We test whether new CEOs make different divisional investment decisions than their predecessors, and if yes, how would this difference affect firm performance. We find that segment investments respond to factors, such as segment investment opportunity, segment cash flow, and other segments’ cash flows, differently after CEO turnover. Evidence also indicates that new CEOs adjust the segments’ previous over-investment /under-investment status to match industry average investment level, and they adjust the relative investment preference among divisions. These findings support the argument that different CEOs have their own set of skills and incentives, which directly affect their internal capital allocation decisions after they take over the office. We also examine the affiliation relationship between certain divisions and new CEOs, and find that new CEOs do not make capital allocation in favor their affiliated divisions. Furthermore, the analyses on firm-level internal capital allocation sensitivity do not support the literature about positive relationship between firm performance and the “Q-sensitivity”. But, our analyses do find a positive and robust relationship between changes in firm performance and changes in the “cash flow-sensitivity”. This suggests that new CEOs making internal capital allocation in favor of their “cash cow” segments are more likely to improve firm performance after CEO turnover.

An exploratory investigation using a case study approach was undertaken in five organisations in different sectors, to explore whether there is any connection between CEO leadership style and adoption of the marketing concept by the organisation. Findings emerged on several levels. The market orientation and marketing concept, beyond the level of customer focus, is not well understood in organisations. The integration of market orientation and marketing effort across the organisation presents as the most problematic component of the marketing concept, as well as the one where CEO leadership style has the most potential to impact. The language of leadership theory is not actively assumed by people working in the case study organisations. The way people experience leadership style is ultimately personal, interpersonal and difficult to describe. Leadership attributes are valued differently in different organisations. Highly regarded leadership strengths result in perceived weaknesses being forgiven. In relation to the main research question, intuitively most people believed there is a connection between CEO leadership style and adoption of the marketing concept, but this was difficult to test at an organisational level due to small sample sizes and because each case study business presented with relatively high market orientations and CEOs with appropriate leadership styles. The CEO leadership themes commonly determined to be relevant were people focus (in terms of customers and staff), vision, change orientation, and passion/enthusiasm for the business. Survey data at the individual level was aggregated across the five organisations and analysed. Results showed the above attributes, and others associated with transformational leadership approaches, were related to perceptions of market orientation. While these results cannot be statistically generalisable because of the small and unrepresentative sample used, the findings suggest that the link between individual organisation members' perceptions of market orientation and CEO leadership would be worthy of a larger study.

With the judicial system worldwide investigating finance companies for misleading disclosures, deception has become a topical issue. However, deception is an area that has historically not been favoured in academia. The paper aims to determine whether disclosure practices of failed companies show more characteristics of deception than those of viable companies. The research will involve a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methodologies, including the use of content analysis and the software DICTION. An index of deception is constructed. The higher the deception score, the more deceptive the authors are deemed to be. This study tests this argument with respect to the prospectuses of a sample of failed and non-failed New Zealand finance companies.

This study of CEOs in Nigeria sought to discover the practices that CEOs engaged in as relevant and effective in an emerging economy. Twenty eight CEOs of national and expatriate extraction running national and multi-national companies were interviewed to understand their experiences of the contextual influences of an emerging economy and how this impacted what they did, ie. their practices. In support of contingency theories that seek to explain how effective leadership is the result of appropriateness of fit between particular behaviours and particular situations , CEO practices in an emerging economy were found to be attributable to the macro influences of an emerging economy, discovered in the Nigerian environment to include: - undue government influence, unwholesome competitor practices, short supply of skills and talent, inadequate social and physical infrastructure, a large untapped market and poor government capacity to implement policies and laws. The inclusion of previously unresearched but potentially relevant meso and micro influences of company type and CEO nationality status led to the discovery of additional CEO practices that were perceived to be relevant in an emerging economy context and the attribution of differences in CEO practices to the individual or combined influence of these contexts. A conceptual model derived from the findings of this study provided a new understanding of the relationship between the macro influences of an emerging economy, the meso influence of company type and the micro influence of CEO nationality status on CEO practices and the intended outcomes of those practices. Practical knowledge about the development of business leaders in an emerging economy has been extended as a result of deeper insights into the contextually influenced and relevant CEO practices in an emerging economy.