With rapidly advancing technologies and digital innovations, companies face the need to adapt to the new digital world and to digitally transform their business models. For executing the digital transformation process, more and more companies decide to entrust a new C-level manager with all challenges and complexity arising from digital transformation, the Chief Digital Officer (CDO). As the CDO position is still fairly new, research in this field is limited and requires further attention by scholars. Therefore, this study aims to address three fundamental research questions concerning the nature of the CDO position and corresponding implications not only to inform practitioners but also to enrich the scholarly discussion on CDOs. By understanding existing literature on CDOs based on a systematic literature review, this thesis answers the first research question regarding what characterizes the CDO position. Building on these insights and drawing from a comprehensive theoretical framework consisting of upper echelons theory, contingency theory, human capital theory and the resource-based view, hypotheses are developed for answering research questions two and three. While the second research question focuses on factors, which influence CDO presence within a company, the third research question addresses the impact of a CDO on company performance. Based on a large-scale sample of panel data comprised of S&P 500 companies, generalized estimating equations models, propensity score matching and fixed effects regression models are exploited in order to derive answers for both research questions two and three. As influencing factors for CDO presence, the results show that especially early tenure CEOs and CEOs of larger companies are more likely to employ a CDO. Although no evidence can be observed for positive performance implications of CDOs, also given different company contingencies, the insights of this study's analyses show that certain CDO characteristics as well as in combination with CIO presence and varying CEO characteristics are more favorable over others in terms of company performance measured by return on assets and Tobin's Q.

With the ongoing globalization and changes in the economic environment, organizations need to be flexible and adaptable towards new situations and opportunities. In a context where firms strategically reach across national borders, firms are encountering differing cultural backgrounds. Multinational corporations (MNCs) are confronted with the question of how to fill executive positions. The need for employees with international expertise arises to reap the advantage of nationality diversity by matching the complexity of the global environment with the right level of board capital. Such firm managers must work in increasingly international contexts and cross-cultural environments. Scholars have regarded diversity as an essential element that helps organizations and their executives to deal with uncertainties arising from globalization. (Koles 2014). The top executives of an organization are regarded as an essential criterion for firm´s success. Top managers have considerable influence over the fate of the organizations they lead. These trends have led to increasing instability in classic employment relationships and show greater diversity and mobility within organizational and occupational boundaries (Dokko/Wilk/Rothbard 2009; Greenhaus/Callanan 2012; Biemann/Zacher/Feldman 2012; Koch et al. 2017). This dissertation further aims at advancing our empirical understanding of top managers diversity, internationalisation and their careers. The three research manuscripts that form the core of this thesis advance research on top managers in several ways and extend knowledge in the area of executive characteristics. All three manuscripts are anchored in the European context and address topics that are relevant yet underexplored in extant, mostly centred in the US and Western economies top management literature (Tosi/Greckhamer 2004; Carter et al. 2009; Boyd et al. 2012; Dauth 2012).

As a result of new information technology and globalization, there has never before been a time when people have had better access to information, than nowadays. The potential overload of information builds the basis for the research questions of this cumulative dissertation, which relates to the extensively discussed 'disclosure overload problem'. Special focus is put on decision-useful information in voluntary reporting of capital market-oriented companies. In this context the first manuscript investigates the quality of information in voluntary strategy reporting and formulates qualitative principles. Based thereon, the second manuscript examines determinants influencing the quality of strategy reporting. The third manuscript is focusing on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting and investigates the relation of transparency in CSR reports and external assurance. The prior discussed topics as well as financial reporting and new reporting concepts, like integrated reporting, are put into context in the fourth manuscript. In this educational case study special emphasis is placed on the determination of material information, which is of high importance for future decision leaders.

This cumulative dissertation covers three studies on the research subject of Cross-Cultural-Negotiations. The first study provides a systematic literature review of the research field. It categorizes and synthesizes the literature based on the cultural dimensions used in negotiation research and sorts it along the four negotiation stages of Adair and Brett (2005). It shows controversial findings, research gaps, highlights potential impasses in methodological approaches, and provides recommendations for future research. The second study investigates the potential cultural influence on First Offer anchors in negotiations. No support for a direct cultural influence could be found. Instead, the participants' age and concerns that the opposite may take advantage of a too low First Offer has been found to influence First Offers. Additionally, the latter finding shows significant differences across cultures. The third study investigates whether the implicitly understood universality of ‘Getting to yes’ (Fisher, Ury, and Patton 2012) holds in a Cross-Cultural-Context. The study finds that the implicitly understood universality of principled negotiations is not supported by findings in Cross-Cultural-Negotiation research. Instead, a dichotomic applicability of the authors’ advice of ‘Getting to yes’ along the bipolar cultural construct of Hofstede’s Individuality dimension was found. This dissertation underlines that culture has a high impact on negotiations. It provides research, practice, and teaching additional knowledge to address and deal with the phenomenon of culture in Cross-Border-Negotiations.