Published papers

This study investigates the effects of foreign return-oriented shareholders and domestic relational shareholders of Japanese companies on the earnings management behavior of their invested firms when stock option pay is adopted. We theorize that foreign shareholders seek short-term returns and do not engage in close monitoring due to an information disadvantage while domestic shareholders prevent managerial behavior that distorts information disclosure. Our findings show that managers of firms that use stock option pay engage in earnings management to increase their private financial benefits and meet capital markets’ expectations, which allows them to enhance their own reputation. However, this managerial behavior is contingent on the firm’s ownership structure. Our results show that while foreign shareholders enhance the positive impact of stock options on earning management, domestic shareholders and affiliated directors mitigate this positive effect. Our empirical analyses support the argument that ownership heterogeneity is a key determinant of managerial propensity to engage in earnings management when Japanese firms adopt stock option pay.

Executive succession in conjunction with a gender shift is a key factor for enhancing gender diversity in senior management positions. Although an extensive strategic leadership literature has examined CEO turnover and succession, research is lacking on the succession of top management team (TMT) members or non-CEO executives at the individual level. By focusing on a specific executive position—the chief human resources officer (CHRO)—this study examines how executive succession in conjunction with a gender shift occurs. Although women are underrepresented in TMTs, we observe an increase in the number of women appointed to the role of CHRO. By utilizing social role and social categorization theories, we describe the dynamics of the gender shift in the CHRO position. We find that CHRO succession with a gender shift is not prevalent and that male-to-male or female-to-female successions are more common. However, our results suggest that CEOs’ board positions in a firm with a female CHRO and the industry-level diffusion of female CHROs tend to be negatively associated with male-to-male CHRO successions. Our results highlight how such factors may mitigate the effect of social role perceptions.

The ongoing underrepresentation of women in the top management positions is well noted. Despite this underrepresentation, we observe an increase in the number of women appointed to the Chief Human Resource Officer (CHRO). While this potentially holds promise for top management gender diversity, we do not know much about how women have been appointed to this position especially after a male predecessor. We thus examine the competing forces of social role perception and social categorization on a gender shift in the CHRO position. Social role theory predicts that the appointment of a female CHRO would be promoted due to gender stereotypes, while social categorization theory predicts that the appointment of a female executive including the CHRO would be avoided due to the outsider status of women. We find that the firm is less likely to appoint a female CHRO following a male predecessor, consistent with social categorization theory. However, our results further show that CEOs’ board position in a firm with a female CHRO and the industry-level diffusion of a female CHRO facilitate a change from a male CHRO to a female CHRO. These results suggest that the effect of social role perception is triggered under some circumstances.