Jay J. Janney

Emerging Issues in Corporate Entrepreneurship

Research on corporate entrepreneurship (CE) has grown rapidly over the past decade. In this article, we identify four major issues scholars can pursue to further our understanding about CE. The issues we explore include various forms of CE (e.g., sustained regeneration, domain redefinition) and their implications for organizational learning; the role of leadership and social exchange in the CE process; and, key research opportunities relevant to CE in an international context. To address the latter issue, we propose a typology that separates content from process-related studies and new ventures vs. established companies. We close with a reassessment of the outcomes in CE research, which becomes particularly salient with the increasing importance of social, human, and intellectual capital in creating competitive advantages and wealth in today’s knowledge economy. Throughout the article, we use the organizational learning theory as a means of integrating our discussion and highlighting the potential contributions of CE to knowledge creation and effective exploitation.

Reputation and Corporate Social Responsibility Aberrations, Trends, and Hypocrisy: Reactions to Firm Choices in the Stock Option Backdating Scandal

Drawing on strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) and reputation theory, this paper examines the market reaction to firm disclosures of involvement in the US stock option backdating scandal. We examine how a firms prior signals regarding ethical behaviour and values, as demonstrated through CSR initiatives, may both ameliorate and exacerbate market reactions. CSR initiatives may buffer a firm against general wrong‐doing but expose it to greater scrutiny and sanction for related wrong‐doing. Our results show that firms with enhanced overall reputations for CSR are partially buffered from scandal revelations. However, we find that when firms possess an enhanced reputation for CSR associated with corporate governance, violations pertaining specifically to governance are viewed as hypocritical and more harshly sanctioned. We also find lower and negative market reactions for firms that delay but self‐disclose their involvement in the scandal. The study extends the emergent, related literatures on strategic CSR and reputation management, and documents dynamics in the relationship between corporate social and financial performance.

Walk the talk : Developing personal ethical agency through a business partnership program

This article proposes a pedagogical approach dedicated to help students develop personal ethical agency—the ability to make decisions that involve ethical dilemmas consistent with an individual’s ethical standards and professional standards of practice. The approach presented involves a tripartite gathering of students, business executives, and faculty in discussions of cases embedded with ethical dilemmas. Sessions highlight ethical issues that closely correspond with core components from courses. The article provides a description of personal ethical agency, the developmental stages of the Walk the Talk program, and assessment of the program and concludes with plans for future program development and expansion.

Do Executive Departures to Signal the End of a Scandal Create or Reduce Uncertainty? An Examination of Market Reaction in Stock Option Backdating Scandal Events

This study examines events at the conclusion of the 2006 stock option backdating scandal: the departures of C-level executives from firms implicated in backdating. The authors ask whether removing executives brings closure to the scandal, or if executive turnover creates greater uncertainty. Using a sample of 236 executive departures, the authors find that although overall market reaction to executive departures is negative, those departures involving a firm’s CEO or CFO ameliorate the market reaction. The authors also find that market reaction worsens when the CEO “resigns,” versus being terminated, and when the firm involved has been previously identified as socially responsible. Results suggest that firms, by shaping who and how executives depart, may amplify or dampen the damage of existing scandalizing events.

PUSHED OR JUMPED? MARKET REACTIONS TO VOLUNTARY VERSUS INVOLUNTARY DISCLOSURE IN THE STOCK-OPTION BACKDATING SCANDAL.

When Sarbanes-Oxley became law in 2002, it shut down loopholes for stock options backdating. Some firms publicly disclosed internal back-dating investigations, others had their investigations revealed involuntarily. While market reactions are consistently negative, we test how voluntary disclosure effects subsequent announcements of Sec/DoJ investigations, as well as timing.