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Earnings management decisions and ineffective monitoring activities have contributed to financial accounting scandals and reduced confidence in firms’ reporting quality among potential investors, lenders and other creditors. The implementation of an effective top management team (TMT) is considered essential in this context. It is well known that top managers have considerable discretion over firms’ financial reporting since they choose whether and how to manage earnings. However, research has yet to establish the relationship between top managers’ diversity attributes and firms’ earnings management levels. Therefore, this study analyses whether and how top managers’ nationality, gender and age diversity are associated with accounting quality. Based on a sample of German DAX 30 listed firms from 2011 to 2018, we found that diversity in TMT nationality and gender have a positive impact on accounting quality. This relationship is context-dependent and negatively moderated by the tenure of the chief financial officer. Our findings provide novel insights on accounting quality for practitioners such as investors, regulators and stock corporations. The implications of this study further advance the academic debate on diversity in TMTs and its effects on earnings management.
An important topic in international business (IB) has recently been the expansion of firms from institutionally and economically less developed countries to more advanced economies [e.g. De Beule, Elia, Piscitello, 2013]. A lot of academic attention has been devoted to the peculiarity of these firms' strategies as compared to traditional multinational enterprises (MNEs). Specifically, the motives of establishing subsidiaries in more advanced contexts have been studied in the past [e.g. Chen, Li, Shapiro, 2012]. Given the surge of upmarket investments, it is the strategic asset-seeking motivation that has recently gained on relevance and, consequently, academic attention [e.g. Luo, Tung, 2007; Buckley et al., 2008]. This asset-augmenting focus, particularly discussed in the context of Chinese firms' foreign expansion through mergers and acquisitions (M&A), can be associated with resource disadvantages related to their status of latecomers to the international economy. However, the evidence on the expansion of firms from post-transition economies from the region of Central Eastern Europe (CEE) into more advanced economies and the ways in which these firms build up legitimacy in order to survive and develop in those markets, still remains scarce [Trąpczyński, Banalieva, 155 2016]. This stays in contrast with the actual relevance of Germany as a host country for Polish investment, whereby it was the second largest destination for FDI outflows in 2019 with EUR 266.4 million [Narodowy Bank Polski, 2020]. From the perspective of institutional theory, the entry of emerging market firms into more advanced markets raises a number of challenges related to achieving legitimacy in the host country and therefore ensuring sustained performance. This chapter aims to explore the methods of building legitimacy by post-transition economy firms in a more advanced economy on the example of Polish firms in Germany, and the considerations are preliminary in nature. (fragment of text)
New Work in der Pflege
(2022)
Beim Deutschen Pflegetag 2022 zeichnete die Präsidentin des Deutschen Pflegerats, Christine Vogler, jüngst mit ihren Worten ein düsteres Bild für die Zukunft der Pflege. Aus ihrer Sicht ließe sich nur durch die Steigerung der Attraktivität des Pflegeberufs dieser düsteren Entwicklung gegensteuern. Jedoch finden die jahrelangen Forderungen nach einer Erhöhung der Attraktivität dieses Berufsbildes keine Beachtung.
Die Frage, wie der Pflegeberuf attraktiver werden kann, erfordert neue und kreative Antworten. Als ein möglicher Lösungsansatz wird das Konzept »New Work« genannt. Dahinter steht die Hypothese, dass mit diesem Ansatz eine Verbesserung von Inhalten und Rahmenbedingungen des Pflegeberufes gelingen kann.
The diversity of top management teams is a topic of increasing scholarly and practical interest. lt is argued that globalisation requires international operating firms to staff their management teams with international and diverse members. We investigate the influence of institutional environments on gender and internationality diversity in boards to shed light on the question "Why do top management teams look the way they do?" Our sample includes top management team members of the largest stock listed firms in Ge1many and Poland. The sample consists of 60 firms and 852 individuals from 2019. Our findings suggest that the presence of non-natives and women on corporate boards and the international orientation of board members, in terms of education, work experience and directorships, are attributable to national institutional systems. While Germany · s top managers are becoming increasingly internationally diverse and have increasing gender diversification, the figures for Poland are also increasing, but on a much smaller scale. We argue that country-level institutions play an important role in shaping the diversity of corporate boards. Future research should place more emphasis on the external national environment when investigating board diversity.
At a time where firms encounter a “race for talent”, it is crucial for many MNCs to present themselves as attractive employers. Failing to position themselves in the international labor market can reduce firms' ability to acquire valuable international human capital, thereby generating disadvantageous organizational effects. Against this backdrop, drawing on signaling theory and employer branding literature, our paper aims to shed light on the association between nationality diversity in the executive suite and MNCs' employer attractiveness. Our lines of argument build on the notion that top management team composition can affect MNCs' efforts to promote diversity among their employees. This focus on diversity, in turn, can affect MNCs' employer attractiveness. Examining firms from various European countries, we find that top management team nationality diversity is positively associated with firms' employer attractiveness for foreign job seekers. We also show that a firm's efforts to promote diversity mediate the relationship between TMT nationality diversity and employer attractiveness. We therefore advance the academic debate on diversity as an employer branding tool and a means to enhance employer attractiveness. In practical terms, we also provide valuable insights for firms wishing to transform into (more) diverse entities.
This paper targets virtual work, an increasingly crucial alternative work arrangement in today’s interconnected world. Based on a survey of 308 employees working in Germany and China, we investigate the relationship between virtual work intensity, work-family balance, and job satisfaction through a mediator model. We find empirical evidence for an inverted U-shaped relationship between virtual work intensity and job satisfaction. When virtual work intensity is below a particular level, it is positively related to job satisfaction. However, increasing virtual work intensity begins to decrease job satisfaction when this threshold is exceeded. Our findings suggest this relationship between virtual work intensity and job satisfaction is mediated by work-family balance. Furthermore, empirical evidence demonstrates that the inverted U-shaped relationship has different optimums in different cultures. The research outcome demonstrates that the threshold is lower for Chinese employees than their German colleagues. This paper contributes to literature relating to job satisfaction, work-family balance, and virtual work by focusing on individual virtual work outcomes in a cross-cultural context. It also attempts to provide an alternative explanation for the generative mechanism of the impact of virtual work intensity on job satisfaction.
This study explores the role and facilitating actions of top managers in response to the digital transformation. Building on 27 in-depth interviews with top managers and close associates from large German firms, we find that top managers respond to the digital transformation by engaging in three key actions: understanding digitalization, setting the formal context for digitalization, and leading change. Moreover, findings emphasize that top management team support is essential in firms' digital transformation. Overall, this study contributes novel insights about the consequences of top managers for firms and establishes an initial foundation for investigating top managers in the digital age.
This study examines whether top management team (TMT) internationalization is positively related to firm innovativeness. Besides focusing on the accumulation of top managers' international knowledge and capabilities, we explore the influence of moderators reflecting temporal concerns at three levels: CEO age, TMT tenure, and firm age. Combining upper echelons theory with innovation literature and using a sample of large stock-listed German firms, we demonstrate that TMT internationalization can increase firm innovativeness. This relationship is context-dependent on the age of the CEO. Overall, this paper sheds light on the antecedents of firm innovativeness and the consequences of increasingly international TMTs.