IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/aosoci/v113y2024ics0361368224000230.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Strengthening the CEO–CFO interplay: The role of regulatory focus and similar compensation plans

Author

Listed:
  • Firk, Sebastian
  • Detzen, Nina
  • Hennig, Jan C.
  • Wolff, Michael

Abstract

In this study, we examine how personality attributes and a coordinated compensation design jointly contribute to complementarity in the CEO–CFO dyad. Drawing on regulatory focus theory, we propose that the combination of a CEO with a promotion focus and a CFO with a prevention focus benefits firms. In such a dyad, promotion-focused CEOs bring creativity, speed, and eagerness to advancement, whereas prevention-focused CFOs attend to vigilance, helping to keep promotion-focused CEOs grounded. We further argue that the effectiveness of this CEO–CFO dyad depends on promotion-focused CEOs being open to critical advice from prevention-focused CFOs. To make CEOs more amenable to CFOs' advice, we suggest similar compensation plans that foreground common objectives. We empirically test our arguments by focusing on the CEO–CFO dyad's influence on investment spending and firm performance in a longitudinal sample covering more than 10,000 firm years. Our results indicate a positive association between CEO promotion focus and investment spending, as well as firm performance. We further find that CFO prevention focus weakens the association between CEO promotion focus and investment spending, but strengthens the association with firm performance. These moderating influences of CFO prevention focus are more pronounced for higher compensation similarity in the CEO–CFO dyad. In sum, our findings exemplify that deliberately considering CEO and CFO personality attributes and their compensation design jointly strengthens the functioning of the CEO–CFO dyad.

Suggested Citation

  • Firk, Sebastian & Detzen, Nina & Hennig, Jan C. & Wolff, Michael, 2024. "Strengthening the CEO–CFO interplay: The role of regulatory focus and similar compensation plans," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:aosoci:v:113:y:2024:i:c:s0361368224000230
    DOI: 10.1016/j.aos.2024.101563
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0361368224000230
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.aos.2024.101563?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Biddle, Gary C. & Hilary, Gilles & Verdi, Rodrigo S., 2009. "How does financial reporting quality relate to investment efficiency?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2-3), pages 112-131, December.
    2. Margaret A. Abernethy & Yu Flora Kuang & Bo Qin, 2019. "The Relation between Strategy, CEO Selection, and Firm Performance," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(3), pages 1575-1606, September.
    3. Daniel L Gamache & François Neville & Jonathan Bundy & Cole E Short, 2020. "Serving differently: CEO regulatory focus and firm stakeholder strategy," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(7), pages 1305-1335, July.
    4. Chava, Sudheer & Purnanandam, Amiyatosh, 2010. "CEOs versus CFOs: Incentives and corporate policies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 263-278, August.
    5. Masschelein, Stijn & Moers, Frank, 2020. "Testing for complementarities between accounting practices," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    6. J. Robert Baum & Stefan Wally, 2003. "Strategic decision speed and firm performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(11), pages 1107-1129, November.
    7. Speckbacher, Gerhard & Wabnegg, Markus, 2020. "Incentivizing innovation: The role of knowledge exchange and distal search behavior," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    8. Steven N. Kaplan & Morten Sorensen, 2021. "Are CEOs Different?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 76(4), pages 1773-1811, August.
    9. Darren Bernard & Weili Ge & Dawn Matsumoto & Sara Toynbee, 2021. "Implied Tradeoffs of Chief Financial Officer Accounting Expertise: Evidence from Firm-Manager Matching," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(9), pages 5776-5799, September.
    10. Sudip Datta & Mai Iskandar-Datta, 2014. "Upper-echelon executive human capital and compensation: Generalist vs specialist skills," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(12), pages 1853-1866, December.
    11. Richard Clune & Dana R. Hermanson & James G. Tompkins & Zhongxia (Shelly) Ye, 2014. "The Nominating Committee Process: A Qualitative Examination of Board Independence and Formalization," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(3), pages 748-786, September.
    12. Viral V. Acharya & Stewart C. Myers & Raghuram G. Rajan, 2011. "The Internal Governance of Firms," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(3), pages 689-720, June.
    13. Gerard Hoberg & Gordon Phillips, 2016. "Text-Based Network Industries and Endogenous Product Differentiation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 124(5), pages 1423-1465.
    14. Edmans, Alex & Gosling, Tom & Jenter, Dirk, 2023. "CEO compensation: Evidence from the field," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(3).
    15. Gibbons, Robert & Murphy, Kevin J, 1992. "Optimal Incentive Contracts in the Presence of Career Concerns: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(3), pages 468-505, June.
    16. Bedford, David S., 2020. "Conceptual and empirical issues in understanding management control combinations," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    17. Guay, Wayne R. & Kepler, John D. & Tsui, David, 2019. "The role of executive cash bonuses in providing individual and team incentives," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(2), pages 441-471.
    18. Grabner, Isabella & Moers, Frank, 2013. "Management control as a system or a package? Conceptual and empirical issues," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 407-419.
    19. Felix Holzmeister & Martin Holmén & Michael Kirchler & Matthias Stefan & Erik Wengström, 2023. "Delegation Decisions in Finance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(8), pages 4828-4844, August.
    20. Brockner, Joel & Higgins, E. Tory & Low, Murray B., 2004. "Regulatory focus theory and the entrepreneurial process," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 203-220, March.
    21. Patt, Anthony G. & Bowles, Hannah Riley & Cash, David W., 2006. "Mechanisms for Enhancing the Credibility of an Adviser: Prepayment and Aligned Incentives," Working Paper Series rwp06-010, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    22. Li, Feng & Minnis, Michael & Nagar, Venky & Rajan, Madhav, 2014. "Knowledge, compensation, and firm value: An empirical analysis of firm communication," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 96-116.
    23. Gino, Francesca & Margolis, Joshua D., 2011. "Bringing ethics into focus: How regulatory focus and risk preferences influence (Un)ethical behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 115(2), pages 145-156, July.
    24. Brian L. Connelly & Laszlo Tihanyi & David J. Ketchen Jr & Christina Matz Carnes & Walter J. Ferrier, 2017. "Competitive repertoire complexity: Governance antecedents and performance outcomes," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(5), pages 1151-1173, May.
    25. J. Myles Shaver, 1998. "Accounting for Endogeneity When Assessing Strategy Performance: Does Entry Mode Choice Affect FDI Survival?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(4), pages 571-585, April.
    26. Mirko H. Benischke & Geoffrey P. Martin & Lotte Glaser, 2019. "CEO equity risk bearing and strategic risk taking: The moderating effect of CEO personality," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 153-177, January.
    27. Augustin Landier & Julien Sauvagnat & David Sraer & David Thesmar, 2013. "Bottom-Up Corporate Governance," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 17(1), pages 161-201.
    28. repec:eme:jal000:jal-03-2022-0031 is not listed on IDEAS
    29. Robert M. Gillenkirch & Julia Ortner & Sebastian Robert & Louis Velthuis, 2023. "Designing incentives and performance measurement for advisors: How to make decision-makers listen to advice," Working Papers 2304, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    30. Xingtong Fang & Kaigang He & Yijun Meng & Jianfang Ye, 2022. "Supervision or collusion? CEO–CFO social ties and financial reporting quality," Journal of Accounting Literature, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 44(2/3), pages 133-153, September.
    31. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    32. Itoh Hideshi, 1993. "Coalitions, Incentives, and Risk Sharing," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 410-427, August.
    33. Grabner, Isabella & Klein, Aleksandra & Speckbacher, Gerhard, 2022. "Managing the trade-off between autonomy and task interdependence in creative teams: The role of organizational-level cultural control," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    34. Caglio, Ariela & Dossi, Andrea & Van der Stede, Wim A., 2018. "CFO role and CFO compensation: an empirical analysis of their implications," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 88296, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    35. Woo-Jin Chang & Rachel M. Hayes & Stephen A. Hillegeist, 2016. "Financial Distress Risk and New CEO Compensation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(2), pages 479-501, February.
    36. Shane S. Dikolli & John C. Heater & William J. Mayew & Mani Sethuraman, 2021. "Chief Financial Officer Co-option and Chief Executive Officer Compensation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(3), pages 1939-1955, March.
    37. Florackis, Chris & Sainani, Sushil, 2018. "How do chief financial officers influence corporate cash policies?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 168-191.
    38. Augustin Landier & David Sraer & David Thesmar, 2009. "Optimal Dissent in Organizations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 76(2), pages 761-794.
    39. Steven N. Kaplan & Mark M. Klebanov & Morten Sorensen, 2012. "Which CEO Characteristics and Abilities Matter?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(3), pages 973-1007, June.
    40. Paul Hribar & Holly Yang, 2016. "CEO Overconfidence and Management Forecasting," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(1), pages 204-227, March.
    41. Ronald W. Masulis & Cong Wang & Fei Xie, 2007. "Corporate Governance and Acquirer Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(4), pages 1851-1889, August.
    42. Joseph S. Harrison & Gary R. Thurgood & Steven Boivie & Michael D. Pfarrer, 2019. "Measuring CEO personality: Developing, validating, and testing a linguistic tool," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(8), pages 1316-1330, August.
    43. Yim, Soojin, 2013. "The acquisitiveness of youth: CEO age and acquisition behavior," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(1), pages 250-273.
    44. Coles, Jeffrey L. & Daniel, Naveen D. & Naveen, Lalitha, 2006. "Managerial incentives and risk-taking," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 431-468, February.
    45. Forster, Jens & Higgins, E. Tory & Bianco, Amy Taylor, 2003. "Speed/accuracy decisions in task performance: Built-in trade-off or separate strategic concerns?," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 148-164, January.
    46. Kim, Jaehyeon & Kim, Yongtae & Zhou, Jian, 2017. "Languages and earnings management," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 288-306.
    47. David Thesmar, 2009. "Optimal dissent and risk Management within organizations," Post-Print hal-00495931, HAL.
    48. Gerard Hoberg & Gordon Phillips & Nagpurnanand Prabhala, 2014. "Product Market Threats, Payouts, and Financial Flexibility," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(1), pages 293-324, February.
    49. Kelvin K. F. Law & Lillian F. Mills, 2017. "Military experience and corporate tax avoidance," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 141-184, March.
    50. Charles Ham & Mark Lang & Nicholas Seybert & Sean Wang, 2017. "CFO Narcissism and Financial Reporting Quality," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(5), pages 1089-1135, December.
    51. Tim Loughran & Bill Mcdonald, 2011. "When Is a Liability Not a Liability? Textual Analysis, Dictionaries, and 10‐Ks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(1), pages 35-65, February.
    52. Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Puri, Manju, 2015. "Capital allocation and delegation of decision-making authority within firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(3), pages 449-470.
    53. Hoitash, Rani & Hoitash, Udi & Kurt, Ahmet C., 2016. "Do accountants make better chief financial officers?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 414-432.
    54. García Lara, Juan Manuel & García Osma, Beatriz & Penalva, Fernando, 2016. "Accounting conservatism and firm investment efficiency," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 221-238.
    55. Kammerlander, Nadine & Burger, Dominik & Fust, Alexander & Fueglistaller, Urs, 2015. "Exploration and exploitation in established small and medium-sized enterprises: The effect of CEOs' regulatory focus," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 582-602.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Liu, Yin & Neely, Pamela & Karim, Khondkar, 2022. "The impact of CFO gender on corporate overinvestment," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    2. Hoitash, Udi & Mkrtchyan, Anahit, 2022. "Internal governance and outside directors’ connections to non-director executives," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1).
    3. Brick, Ivan E. & Palia, Darius & Qiao, Yankuo, 2024. "Impact of internal governance on investment policy: Evidence from CEO voluntary turnovers," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    4. Mekhaimer, Mohamed & Abakah, Alex Annan & Ibrahim, Awad & Hussainey, Khaled, 2022. "Subordinate executives' horizon and firm policies," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    5. Duong, Kiet Tuan & Banti, Chiara & Instefjord, Norvald, 2021. "Managerial conservatism and corporate policies," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    6. Yin Liu & Huiqi Gan & Khondkar Karim, 2021. "The effectiveness of chief financial officer board membership in improving corporate investment efficiency," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 487-521, August.
    7. Chowdhury, Md Raihan Uddin & Xie, Feixue & Hasan, Md Mahmudul, 2023. "Powerful CEOs and investment efficiency," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    8. Cziraki, Peter & Xu, Moqi, 2014. "CEO job security and risk-taking," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 55909, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Ee, Mong Shan & Hasan, Iftekhar & Huang, He, 2022. "Stock liquidity and corporate labor investment," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    10. Ma, Xiaofang & Chen, Jun & Dong, Wang & Su, Qiaoling, 2024. "Chief accountants weigh in: How professional leadership of SOEs influence investment efficiency," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PB).
    11. Gada, Viswa Prasad & Goyal, Lakshmi & Popli, Manish, 2021. "Earnouts in M&A deal structuring: The impact of CEO prevention focus," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(1).
    12. Lyu, Meng & Christine Sun, Xiaojie & Wang, Bing, 2022. "Does CFO vertical duality affect financial outcomes? Evidence from the CFO acting as the head of accounting," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    13. Pham, Man Duy (Marty), 2022. "Management friendship and insider opportunism," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    14. Murthy, Sidharth & Gul, Ferdinand A. & Yao, Jun, 2023. "CEO regulatory focus and management earnings forecasts," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3).
    15. Hsu, Po-Hsuan & Li, Fengfei & Nozawa, Yoshio, 2025. "Options trading, managerial risk-taking, and brand development," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    16. Athanasakou, Vasiliki & Ferreira, Daniel & Goh, Lisa, 2022. "Changes in CEO stock option grants: a look at the numbers," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 115609, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Athanasakou, Vasiliki & Ferreira, Daniel & Goh, Lisa, 2022. "Changes in CEO stock option grants: A look at the numbers," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    18. Malmendier, Ulrike M. & Pezone, Vincenzo & Zheng, Hui, 2020. "Managerial Duties and Managerial Biases," CEPR Discussion Papers 14929, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Khoo, Joye & Cheung, Adrian (Wai Kong), 2024. "Subordinate executives’ horizon and cash holdings," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA).
    20. Andreas Wagner & Denise Fischer‐Kreer, 2024. "The role of CEO regulatory focus in increasing or reducing corporate carbon emissions," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 1051-1065, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:aosoci:v:113:y:2024:i:c:s0361368224000230. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/aos .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.