Jaideep Chowdhury

Organizational slack effects on innovation: the moderating roles of CEO tenure and compensation

This study draws on upper echelons theory, the resource based view, and Penroses theory of firm growth to show that slack resources, specifically financial and human slack, are essential to the research and development (R&D) strategies of organizations. We also suggest that both Chief Executive Officer (CEO) tenure and CEO compensation positively moderate the slack-innovation relationship.The empirical design compromised of panel regression analysis. We tested our hypotheses using all US publicly traded firms between 1993 and 2011.The research results show that firms with excess financial resources are more likely to have higher R&D investments, and to completely understand this relationship we must study CEO tenure and compensation.This study sheds light on central antecedents of firm innovation, it further extends our understanding by investigating the impact of CEO tenure and compensation on the slackinnovation relationship, and it applies a longitudinal design which answers previous calls to investigate this topic in more depth by offering enhanced stability to the results while allowing for different economic scenarios.

The relationship between organizational slack and innovation: revisited

Purpose - – The slack-innovation relationship has interested scholars for years. The authors aim to delve into the impact of financial slack on firm innovation by replicating a classic study arguing that this relationship has an inverse U-shape. Design/methodology/approach - – The sample consists of all US firms that were publicly traded between 1993 and 2011. The authors employ the standard econometrics methodology of panel regression with firm-fixed effect and time-fixed effect to estimate the regression equation of firm innovation on financial slack. Findings - – The authors find that the relationship between financial slack and R&D investments is similar to that suggested by earlier authors, thus enhancing the generalizability of this important finding in management research. The authors also find that this relationship holds even during economic downturns. Originality/value - – The authors replicate Nohria and Gulatis classic study by considering the impact of slack on innovation. The authors also move away from survey data, as used by Nohria and Gulati. The authors utilize actual firm-level data for a large sample of US publicly traded firms from 1993 to 2011, thus enhancing the generalizability of these findings.

The financial impact of retail store closure announcements

Purpose While store closure announcements frequently appear in newspapers, little is known about the financial impact of store closure decisions on the retailer’s market value. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the stock market reaction to the announcements of retail store closure decisions. Design/methodology/approach The authors collect data from news articles on store closure announcements in the USA during 1995-2016. Using the four-factor model in an event study, the authors compute the abnormal stock returns for the retail firms due to these announcements. Findings Based on the authors’ analysis for sample and matching control firms, the abnormal stock returns for store closure announcements are found to be positive overall. The authors find evidence that the positive effects of the announcements are stronger, particularly for the firms which have positive sales growth at the time of the announcements. The authors also report that industry competition acts as a negative moderator in the relationship between announcements and financial impacts. Practical implications The authors’ analysis implies the investors’ positive sentiment of store closure announcements as a viable cost-cutting strategy, especially when it is done proactively by better performing retailers. The findings should be useful to the supply chain managers of retail industries in making store closure decisions. Originality/value This paper is believed to be the first to address the impact of retail store closure announcements on the stock market. The authors’ approach of categorizing the firms based on their sales growth seems to be the first in the event study literature on corporate restructuring.

Market share growth and stock returns

We find a negative relationship between market share growth and subsequent stock returns, three‐ and four‐factor alphas. We report the potential explanatory role of market share growth in explaining subsequent average monthly stock returns. High (Low) market share growth firms report good (poor) operating performance and positive (negative) SUEs in the quarter in which market share growth is measured and investors overact to that good (bad) news. However, high (low) market share growth firms experience decrease (increase) in operating performance and SUEs in the subsequent quarters resulting in corrections in investors’ expectations and subsequent lower (higher) stock returns.

Executive compensation and product market behaviour

There is little empirical evidence on the effect of a CEO’s incentive compensation on the firm’s product market behaviour. This article reports that performance (risk)-based incentive compensation delta (vega) of a firm’s CEO positively affects its industry-adjusted sales growth (proxy for product market behaviour).