IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i7p1950-d219184.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ingredients of Sustainable CEO Behaviour: Theory and Practice

Author

Listed:
  • Gianpaolo Abatecola

    (Department of Management and Law, School of Economics, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, 00133 Rome, Italy)

  • Matteo Cristofaro

    (Department of Management and Law, School of Economics, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, 00133 Rome, Italy)

Abstract

What CEO attributes can improve corporate sustainability? In this regard, what do superstar CEOs, e.g., Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates, have in common? Also, did the personalities of Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay contribute to the crack in the US Enron Corporation early in this century? Why, as far as presidential elections are concerned, are some countries, more than others, more likely to vote for seemingly narcissistic politicians? In our practice-oriented review article, we aim to contribute to shedding new light on the challenging evidence continuously evolving around CEOs, in general, and around their effect on corporate sustainability, in particular. Two distinctive features represent the main “so-what” value of our work. First, each of the CEO attributes which we sequentially focus on (i.e., power, personality, profiles, and effect) is, at the beginning, not only separately considered but also associated with many recent examples from business life and from the “CEO world” at an international level. Second, from our analysis, we then derive a conceptual framework which, combining all these attributes into a unique body of knowledge, could be used as a potential starting point for future investigations in this challenging research area regarding the CEO/sustainability relationship. In this regard, we believe understanding how all the analysed attributes coevolve will represent a pivotal question to address if we want to enhance the scientific and practical understanding of CEO (sustainable) behaviour.

Suggested Citation

  • Gianpaolo Abatecola & Matteo Cristofaro, 2019. "Ingredients of Sustainable CEO Behaviour: Theory and Practice," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-15, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:7:p:1950-:d:219184
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/7/1950/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/7/1950/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeremy C. Short & David J. Ketchen & Timothy B. Palmer & G. Tomas M. Hult, 2007. "Firm, strategic group, and industry influences on performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 147-167, February.
    2. Nathan J. Hiller & Donald C. Hambrick, 2005. "Conceptualizing executive hubris: the role of (hyper‐)core self‐evaluations in strategic decision‐making," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 297-319, April.
    3. Craig Crossland & Donald C. Hambrick, 2007. "How national systems differ in their constraints on corporate executives: a study of CEO effects in three countries," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(8), pages 767-789, August.
    4. Pol Herrmann & Deepak K Datta, 2002. "CEO Successor Characteristics and the Choice of Foreign Market Entry Mode: An Empirical Study," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 33(3), pages 551-569, September.
    5. Frank Li & Tao Li & Dylan Minor, 2016. "CEO power, corporate social responsibility, and firm value: a test of agency theory," International Journal of Managerial Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 12(5), pages 611-628, October.
    6. Yi Tang & Cuili Qian & Guoli Chen & Rui Shen, 2015. "How CEO hubris affects corporate social (ir)responsibility," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(9), pages 1338-1357, September.
    7. Schmalensee, Richard, 1985. "Do Markets Differ Much?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(3), pages 341-351, June.
    8. Gianpaolo Abatecola & Fiorenza Belussi & Dermot Breslin & Igor Filatotchev, 2016. "Darwinism, organizational evolution and survival: key challenges for future research," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 20(1), pages 1-17, March.
    9. Magnusson, Peter & Boggs, David J., 2006. "International experience and CEO selection: An empirical study," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 107-125, March.
    10. Seonghee Han & Vikram K. Nanda & Sabatino (Dino) Silveri, 2016. "CEO Power and Firm Performance under Pressure," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 45(2), pages 369-400, May.
    11. Sohail Ahmad Javeed & Lin Lefen, 2019. "An Analysis of Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm Performance with Moderating Effects of CEO Power and Ownership Structure: A Case Study of the Manufacturing Sector of Pakistan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-25, January.
    12. James J. Cordeiro & Joseph Sarkis, 2008. "Does explicit contracting effectively link CEO compensation to environmental performance?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(5), pages 304-317, July.
    13. Core, John & Guay, Wayne, 1999. "The use of equity grants to manage optimal equity incentive levels," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 151-184, December.
    14. Matteo Cristofaro, 2017. "Reducing biases of decision-making processes in complex organizations," Management Research Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 40(3), pages 270-291, March.
    15. Lawrence Loh & Thomas Thomas & Yu Wang, 2017. "Sustainability Reporting and Firm Value: Evidence from Singapore-Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-12, November.
    16. ANITA M. McGAHAN & MICHAEL E. PORTER, 1997. "How Much Does Industry Matter, Really?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(S1), pages 15-30, July.
    17. Dermot Breslin, 2016. "What evolves in organizational co-evolution?," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 20(1), pages 45-67, March.
    18. Jeffrey L Coles & Zhichuan (Frank) Li & Albert Y Wang, 2018. "Industry Tournament Incentives," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(4), pages 1418-1459.
    19. Richard P. Rumelt, 1991. "How much does industry matter?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(3), pages 167-185, March.
    20. Wang, Hui & Waldman, David A. & Zhang, Hongyu, 2012. "Strategic leadership across cultures: Current findings and future research directions," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 571-580.
    21. Timothy J. Quigley & Donald C. Hambrick, 2015. "Has the “CEO effect” increased in recent decades? A new explanation for the great rise in America's attention to corporate leaders," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(6), pages 821-830, June.
    22. Asghar Afshar Jahanshahi & Alexander Brem, 2017. "Sustainability in SMEs: Top Management Teams Behavioral Integration as Source of Innovativeness," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-16, October.
    23. Antoinette Rijsenbilt & Harry Commandeur, 2013. "Narcissus Enters the Courtroom: CEO Narcissism and Fraud," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 117(2), pages 413-429, October.
    24. Marianne Bertrand & Antoinette Schoar, 2003. "Managing with Style: The Effect of Managers on Firm Policies," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(4), pages 1169-1208.
    25. Michael C. Withers & Markus A. Fitza, 2017. "Do board chairs matter? The influence of board chairs on firm performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(6), pages 1343-1355, June.
    26. Anita M McGahan & Rogerio Victer, 2010. "How much does home country matter to corporate profitability?," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 41(1), pages 142-165, January.
    27. Timothy J. Quigley & Donald C. Hambrick, 2012. "When the former ceo stays on as board chair: effects on successor discretion, strategic change, and performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(7), pages 834-859, July.
    28. Xinfeng Jiang & Ahsan Akbar, 2018. "Does Increased Representation of Female Executives Improve Corporate Environmental Investment? Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-19, December.
    29. Alison Mackey, 2008. "The effect of CEOs on firm performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(12), pages 1357-1367, December.
    30. Xavier Giroud & Holger M. Mueller, 2011. "Corporate Governance, Product Market Competition, and Equity Prices," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(2), pages 563-600, April.
    31. Shihping Kevin Huang, 2013. "The Impact of CEO Characteristics on Corporate Sustainable Development," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(4), pages 234-244, July.
    32. Jiatao Li & Yi Tang, 2013. "The Social Influence of Executive Hubris," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 83-107, February.
    33. Roberto Cafferata, 2016. "Darwinist connections between the systemness of social organizations and their evolution," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 20(1), pages 19-44, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Matteo Cristofaro & Pier Luigi Giardino, 2020. "Core Self-Evaluations, Self-Leadership, and the Self-Serving Bias in Managerial Decision Making: A Laboratory Experiment," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-23, September.
    2. Fernando Gómez-Bezares & Wojciech Przychodzen & Justyna Przychodzen, 2019. "Corporate Sustainability and CEO–Employee Pay Gap—Buster or Booster?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-15, October.
    3. Hyun-ju Choi, 2021. "Effect of Chief Executive Officer’s Sustainable Leadership Styles on Organization Members’ Psychological Well-Being and Organizational Citizenship Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-29, December.
    4. Thaís Vieira Nunhes & Merce Bernardo & Otávio José de Oliveira, 2020. "Rethinking the Way of Doing Business: A Reframe of Management Structures for Developing Corporate Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-32, February.
    5. Isabel-María García-Sánchez & Víctor Amor-Esteban & Alejandra García-Sánchez, 2021. "Different Leaders in a COVID-19 Scenario: CEO Altruism and Generous Discourse," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-19, March.
    6. Matteo Cristofaro & Pier Luigi Giardino & Luna Leoni, 2020. "The Influence of Core Self-Evaluations on Group Decision Making Processes: A Laboratory Experiment," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-16, May.

    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. Tobias Keller & Martin Glaum & Andreas Bausch & Thorsten Bunz, 2023. "The “CEO in context” technique revisited: A replication and extension of Hambrick and Quigley (2014)," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 1111-1138, April.
    2. Michael C. Withers & Markus A. Fitza, 2017. "Do board chairs matter? The influence of board chairs on firm performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(6), pages 1343-1355, June.
    3. Markus A. Fitza, 2014. "The use of variance decomposition in the investigation of CEO effects: How large must the CEO effect be to rule out chance?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(12), pages 1839-1852, December.
    4. Zacharias, Nicolas A. & Six, Bjoern & Schiereck, Dirk & Stock, Ruth Maria, 2015. "CEO influences on firms' strategic actions: A comparison of CEO-, firm-, and industry-level effects," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(11), pages 2338-2346.
    5. Timothy J. Quigley & Scott D. Graffin, 2017. "Reaffirming the CEO effect is significant and much larger than chance: A comment on Fitza (2014)," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3), pages 793-801, March.
    6. Dmitry Sharapov & Paul Kattuman & Diego Rodriguez & F. Javier Velazquez, 2021. "Using the SHAPLEY value approach to variance decomposition in strategy research: Diversification, internationalization, and corporate group effects on affiliate profitability," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(3), pages 608-623, March.
    7. Michael A. Hitt & David G. Sirmon & Yuan Li & Abby Ghobadian & Jean-Luc Arregle & Kai Xu, 2021. "Institutions, industries and entrepreneurial versus advantage-based strategies: how complex, nested environments affect strategic choice," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 25(1), pages 147-188, March.
    8. Johannes Brunzel, 2021. "Overconfidence and narcissism among the upper echelons: a systematic literature review," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 71(3), pages 585-623, July.
    9. Guan, Jian & Gao, Zhimin & Tan, Justin & Sun, Weizheng & Shi, Fan, 2021. "Does the mixed ownership reform work? Influence of board chair on performance of state-owned enterprises," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 51-59.
    10. Spyridon Stavropoulos & Martijn J. Burger & Dimitris Skuras, 2015. "Data Sparseness and Variance in Accounting Profitability," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 15-014/VII, Tinbergen Institute.
    11. Andonova, Veneta & Ruíz-Pava, Guillermo, 2016. "The role of industry factors and intangible assets in company performance in Colombia," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(10), pages 4377-4384.
    12. Ketelhöhn, Niels W. & Quintanilla, Carlos, 2012. "Country effects on profitability: A multilevel approach using a sample of Central American firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 65(12), pages 1767-1772.
    13. Philipp Meyer‐Doyle & Sunkee Lee & Constance E. Helfat, 2019. "Disentangling the microfoundations of acquisition behavior and performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(11), pages 1733-1756, November.
    14. Siddharth Vedula & Markus Fitza, 2019. "Regional Recipes: A Configurational Analysis of the Regional Entrepreneurial Ecosystem for U.S. Venture Capital-Backed Startups," Strategy Science, INFORMS, vol. 4(1), pages 4-24, March.
    15. Markus Fitza & Laszlo Tihanyi, 2017. "How Much Does Ownership Form Matter?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(13), pages 2726-2743, December.
    16. Young Mok Choi & Kunsu Park, 2019. "Foreign Ownership, Agency Costs, and Long-Term Firm Growth: Evidence from Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-17, March.
    17. Sarada Devi Gadepalli & Arindam Mondal, 2018. "Sources of Business Unit Performance Heterogeneity in India: The Influence of Ownership," Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers, , vol. 43(4), pages 207-221, December.
    18. Muhammad Azeem Qureshi & Fred H. Strønen & Marius Tyseng & Marius Urdal, 2020. "Sustainable Business in Norway: The Firm or the Industry Effect?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-13, April.
    19. Spyridon Stavropoulos & Dimitris Skuras, 2016. "Firm Profitability and Agglomeration Economies: An Elusive Relationship," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 107(1), pages 66-80, February.
    20. Gounopoulos, Dimitrios & Pham, Hang, 2018. "Specialist CEOs and IPO survival," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 217-243.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:7:p:1950-:d:219184. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.