Claudia Arena

Big egos can be green: A study of CEO hubris and environmental innovation

This paper examines whether and to what extent CEO personal traits (hubris, in particular) affect firm environmental innovation. Using the overarching theoretical framework of upper-echelons theory, the paper builds on the insights from the corporate strategy, innovation, and corporate social responsibility literatures. We also examine the moderating role of firm-specific features (e.g. organizational slack) and the external environment (e.g. market uncertainty) in this context. Based on a sample of UK companies operating in sensitive industries, we find that CEO hubris facilitates the engagement in green innovative projects. We also find that CEO hubris does not have a uniform effect: its effect on environmental innovation increases with the organizational slack, but weakens with the extent of environmental uncertainty. Our findings suggest that availability of resources per se is not enough to produce environmental innovation. Instead, it requires a stable external environment that enables the CEO with a hubristic personality to make a correct use of them.

Carrot or stick: CSR disclosures by Southeast Asian companies

Motivated by legitimacy theory, this paper aims to examine comprehensively corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure in Southeast Asian (Association of Southeast Asian Nations [ASEAN]) countries with the aim of disentangling whether such disclosures are the result of a proactive stance or a reaction to regulations.,After a content analysis of CSR stand-alone reports that relies on the Global Reporting Initiative as the basis for comparison, a multivariate analysis is carried out while controlling for firm-specific incentives and industry, country and year fixed effects.,The paper finds that CSR disclosure increased across the entire ASEAN. Although this increase cannot be directly ascribed to the introduction of regulations in Indonesia and Malaysia, the latter may have impacted choices of disclosure media. In countries where reporting requirements have become mandated, mandatory reporters show low levels, and voluntary reporters high levels, of CSR disclosure. The paper also finds that the attainment of CSR awards is related to disclosure. Additional analyses reveal a substitution effect between voluntary and mandatory incentives in countries with high levels of law enforcement.,The evidence suggests that the introduction of regulations can be effective in improving the level and breadth of CSR reporting only in the presence of institutions that ensure the enforcement of the disclosure regulations.,The evidence suggests that organizations are reluctant to report on issues such as child labor, human rights and corruption. Organizations opportunistically employ related disclosure strategies that deviate from the underlying CSR performance.,The paper analyzes not only the level and breadth of CSR disclosure but also the motivation for its use across the still under-investigated ASEAN area, thus allowing an examination of the influence of institutional incentives above and beyond the firm-specific factors that drive CSR activities.

Balanced performance measurement in research hospitals: the participative case study of a haematology department

BackgroundThe paper aims to review, design and implement a multidimensional performance measurement system for a public research hospital in order to address the complexity of its multifaceted stakeholder requirements and its double institutional aim of care and research.MethodThe methodology relies on a participative case study performed by external researchers in close collaboration with the staff of an Italian research hospital.ResultsThe paper develops and applies a customized version of balanced scorecard based on a new set of performance measures. Our findings suggest that it can be considered an effective framework for measuring the research hospital performance, thanks to a combination of generalizable and context-specific factors.ConclusionsBy showing how the balanced scorecard framework can be customized to research hospitals, the paper is especially of interest for complex healthcare organizations that are implementing management accounting practices. The paper contributes to the body of literature on the application of the balanced scorecard in healthcare through an examination of the challenges in designing and implementing this multidimensional performance tool. This is one of the first papers that show how the balanced scorecard model can be adapted to fit the specific requirements of public research hospitals.

Performance implications of public–private partnerships in research hospitals: Lessons from the involvement of a charity:

The paper examines the financial and non-financial performance effects of the third sector involvement in public research hospitals. By relying on multiple data sources, the study compares the performance of an Italian public research hospital before and after the establishment of a partnership with a charity institution. The results reveal that the involvement of the charity is beneficial for both care and research activities, thus supporting the research hospital in achieving its twofold mission. Beside the advancement of the literature, the paper offers a successful example of collaboration between public and not-for-profit organizations that can be replicated to improve public health.