Publication database

Extant literature in organizational inequality shows that environmental forces affect firm gender equality outcomes. While there is evidence that national gender culture affects individual economic outcomes, little is known about the influence of national gender culture at the firm-level. In this article, I use the context of cross-border acquisitions to study how national culture shapes firms’ arrangements towards gender equality as I explore how foreign acquisitions affect workplace gender equality at acquired firms. I use restricted-access employer-employee data from France matched to M&A data. I use a generalized differences-in differences approach to estimate the impact of acquirer national gender culture on gender equality outcomes at acquired firms after an acquisition. I find that firms acquired by acquirers from more gender egalitarian countries see a larger increase in female representation in management and larger decrease in gender pay gap post-acquisition, compared to firms that get acquired by acquirers from less gender egalitarian countries. This main effect is stronger when the post-acquisition integration process is more thorough and when a new CEO is appointed at the acquired firm.

With permission of the Academy of Management

Chance models—mechanisms that explain empirical regularities through unsystematic variance—have a long tradition in the sciences but have been historically marginalized in management scholarship. An exception is the work of James G. March and his coauthors, who proposed a variety of chance models that explain important management phenomena, including the careers of top executives, managerial risk taking, and organizational anarchy, learning, and adaptation. This paper serves as a tribute to the beauty of these “little ideas” and demonstrates how they can be recombined to generate novel implications. In particular, we focus on the example of an inverted V-shaped performance association among the executives featured in one of the most prominent lists of executives, Barron’s annual list of Top 30 chief executive officers. A reanalysis of March and Shapira’s 1992 model provides a novel explanation for why many of the executives’ exceptional performances did not persist. In contrast to the usual explanations of complacency, hubris, and statistical regression, the results show that declines may result from these executives’ slow adaptation, incompetence, and self-reinforced risk taking. We conclude by elaborating on the normative implications of Jim’s chance models, which address many modern management and societal challenges. We further encourage the continued development of chance models to help explain performance differences, shifting from accounts that favor heroic stories of corporate leaders toward accounts that favor those leaders’ changing fortunes.

With permission of the Academy of Management

This dissertation in the field of empirical financial economics broadly explores the interplay between monetary policy, debt securities markets and bank credit. Specifically, the three chapters of this dissertation share two major themes, debt capital structure and the effects of central bank policy. Chapter 1 studies a determinant of the corporate debt capital structure and it finds that the rise of universal banking conglomerates contributed to the increase in bond financing in the U.S. The article of Chapter 2 links the two themes by analyzing a mechanism that describes how the corporate debt structure influences the transmission of central bank policy to the real economy. When central banks purchase corporate bonds, purchase-eligible firms substitute bond debt for bank loans. This, in turn, frees up balance sheet capacity at banks that then start lending to firms without access to bond markets. Finally, chapter 3 is based on an article that examines to what extent central bank policy, among other causes, may be responsible for the low interest rates in recent years. It also analyzes the consequences of low interest rates and issues policy recommendations.

The article examines the risk of the proliferation of potentially harmful disinformation through 'oral' social media services such as Clubhouse. While false or misleading information may have fewer means to stick and go viral, it is also more difficult to fact-check speakers, which may create new vulnerabilities for the information ecosystem online.

The codetermination principle – as seen in the German corporate governance system – provides a solid foundation for achieving climate and sustainability goals. The involvement of employees needs to be coupled with more diversification parameters used for appointing non-executive directors as well as building sustainability expertise and proper incentives for acting sustainably. The Climate Governance Initiative in Germany among others can help non-executive directors in becoming stronger and even more capable sustainability ambassadors within their companies.

The article examines the first decisions issued by Facebook's newly established Oversight Board that deal with the exacerbating problem of health misinformation. In this context, it is questioned whether the Board's applied standard of 'imminent harm' is suitable for the problem at hand given the viral proliferation of potentially consequential false and misleading information about public health policies amid a pandemic.

In an age where manufacturers are challenged to increase production with fewer resources and get their finished products to market sooner, mature manufacturing systems envisioned by I4 promise to rev up production lines, help turn out goods faster, and crunch delivery times and cost .

In our respective fields as a management educator and actor-turned-executive-coach, we have accrued decades of experience in training business professionals to enhance their stage presence at work. When remote working became the rule rather than the exception, we came together to explore what the multi-million-dollar performing arts industry can teach us about mastering virtual communication.