高管特征 对于 数字化转型 数字化迎合 AI washing

. In the era of digital economy, digital transformation has become a hot issue for both academia and industry, especially for those manufacturing enterprises that are not "naturally digital", it is important to use digitalization to reconstruct their capabilities and drive their innovation development. This study aims to analyse the impact of digital transformation on enterprise innovation performance, using data of Chinese manufacturing listed enterprises from 2008 to 2020. The results show that digital transformation can significantly improve enterprise innovation performance. Based on dynamic capability theory and upper echelon theory, we also empirically test the mediating role of dynamic capability and the moderating role of top management’s technical background and social capital. The results show that digital transformation can reconstruct the dynamic capability, which in turn affects their innovation performance. And top management’s technical background can strengthen the positive relationship between digital transformation and dynamic capability, while their social capital weakens the positive relationship between digital transformation and dynamic capability.

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Introduction Drawing upon upper echelon theory and the resource-based view, this study employs a moderated mediation model to investigate the moderating role and underlying mechanisms of digital transformation in the influence of top management teams (TMT) on corporate green innovation. Methods Our analysis of panel data from 19,155 Chinese A-share listed companies (2011–2020) demonstrates that TMT career experience heterogeneity has a positive effect on green innovation, a relationship that is further strengthened by digital transformation. Results This study shows the role of digital transformation in amplifying the effects of TMT diversity on green innovation and the crucial role of industry-academia-research collaboration as a mediator. Heterogeneity analysis highlights that non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs) show more agility than state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in leveraging heterogeneous TMT to drive green innovation. Conversely, green innovation in SOEs benefits more from digital transformation, which includes both its direct and indirect effects of digital transformation. Enterprises located in non-Yangtze River Economic Belt regions benefit more from digital transformation, demonstrating the importance of a balanced distribution of digital resources. Discussion This study provides novel insights into leveraging inclusive leadership and digital capabilities to enhance ecological sustainability. This study underscores the potential of diversified TMTs and digitalization technology integration to catalyze green innovation, which is critical for environmentally responsible transformation.

As sustainable development gains importance, corporate ESG performance has become a key factor in investment decisions and long-term business growth. Drawing on upper echelon theory and stakeholder theory, this study examines the impact of executives with overseas backgrounds on ESG performance using data from A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2010 to 2022. The findings show that: (1) Executives with overseas backgrounds significantly enhance ESG performance; (2) this effect operates through three main channels—promoting corporate green technology innovation, improving the quality of corporate internal control, and enhancing the level of corporate risk-taking—while digital transformation positively moderates the relationship; (3) the effect is more pronounced in non-polluting, manufacturing, capital-intensive, and technology-intensive firms. This study clarifies the internal mechanisms by which executive backgrounds influence ESG outcomes and offers insights into enhancing ESG practices to support China’s “dual carbon” goals.

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices are pivotal to the sustainability and long‐term competitiveness of construction firms, and the drivers of ESG performance have attracted growing attention from construction industry practitioners. Although digital technologies play a central role in advancing ESG practices, little is known about how technology leaders, the senior technology managers in top management teams (TMT), influence ESG performance. This study draws on upper‐echelons theory, resource‐based view, and role theory to explore how technology leader presence (TLP) affects ESG performance in construction firms. Using a sample of Chinese listed construction companies from 2010 to 2022 and applying ordered logit, ordinary least squares and propensity score matching, we find that TLP is positively correlated with ESG performance in construction enterprises, moderated by strategic (i.e., digital transformation and voluntary corporate social responsibility [CSR] disclosure) and upper‐echelon (i.e., TMT age) factors. We also find that TLP improves ESG performance through green innovation. Our findings contribute to the literature on ESG and technology leadership and offer actionable implications for construction practitioners seeking to strengthen ESG outcomes via technology leadership. Given the sample's focus on Chinese construction firms, future research should extend this inquiry across industries and national contexts.

ABSTRACT Digital transformation (DT) is reshaping construction, yet firms struggle to implement it. Drawing on the resource‑based view and upper echelons theory, we employ machine learning techniques to analyse an panel dataset comprising 861 annual observations from Chinese listed construction firms over a 12 year period from 2011 to 2022. We identify and rank DT drivers: a digital‑innovation mindset among top managers dominates, followed by inter‑organizational collaboration and boundary spanning; technology inputs and environmental support are secondary. We prioritize leadership and partnerships as levers for effective DT and offer practical guidance for governance and operations, aligned with UN Sustainable Development Goals.

PurposeExecutives play a key role in firms’ digital transformation, but extant literature remains unclear about the role of the CEO’s general managerial skills. This study aims to investigate the impact of CEOs' general managerial skills on firms’ digital transformation.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on upper echelons theory and the behavioral theory of the firm (BTOF), this study integrates insights from the CEO’s general managerial skills, i.e. a form of decision-makers’ cognitive bias, and its interactions with different types of behavioral heuristics including performance feedback and financial slack in the strategic decision of firms’ digital transformation. Employing a panel dataset of China’s A-share listed firms from 2007 to 2023, we conduct empirical research by using standard two-way fixed effects regressions.FindingsWe find that CEOs’ general managerial skills have a positive impact on firms’ digital transformation, in which there are three mechanisms including digital cognition, risk-taking and coordination mechanisms. Furthermore, we offer a contingent framework based on the perspective of BTOF. We find that performance shortfalls strengthen the positive impact of CEOs’ general managerial skills on firms’ digital transformation, while performance surplus and financial slack weaken this impact.Originality/valueThis study expands the literature on the driver of firms’ digital transformation by investigating the impact of CEOs’ general managerial skills on firms’ digital transformation and helps to understand firms’ digital transformation decisions more comprehensively from the perspective of CEOs’ previous experience. We offer new insight into digital transformation by emphasizing the interaction impacts of the CEO’s general managerial skills and firms’ performance feedback and financial slack.

The use of digital technologies has enabled enterprises to enhance their innovation capabilities and reconstruct their competitive advantage throughout the wave of digital transformation. Previous research has examined the driving forces behind digital transformation through the lens of institutional theory, resource-based views, dynamic capacities, and upper echelons theory. However, these studies have ignored the fact that the decision makers with bounded rationality formulate digital transformation strategies based on “heuristic decisions”. In order to address the above research gap, this study examines the impact of innovation expectation gap on digital transformation of enterprises based on the behavioral theory of the firm. In this paper, Chinese A-share manufacturing enterprises listed from 2010 to 2021 are used as the research sample. The results show that as the innovation expectation gap widens, enterprises will be more motivated to implement digital transformation to improve their innovation performance. Accordingly, the innovation expectation gap has a positive impact on the digital transformation of enterprises. After CEO power and CEO traits are embedded in the research framework, it is found that CEO power can strengthen the positive impact of innovation expectation gap on enterprise digital transformation. In addition, if the CEO has both functional diversity and digital literacy, CEO power's strengthening effect on the relationship between innovation expectation gap and enterprise digital transformation can also be enhanced. The study provides new insights for the study of enterprises digital transformation decision-making from the perspective of innovation expectation gap, which helps to expand the research topics of the behavioral theory of the firm.

Combining the upper echelons theory and imprinting theory, we use data of Chinese listed companies from 2013 to 2022, to explore the relationship between executives’ IT background, managerial myopia, and digital transformation, together with the moderating effect of digital peer effect. We found that executives’ IT background significantly promotes corporate digital transformation, which is robust after serials of robustness tests. Executives’ IT education and practical background can significantly promote digital transformation. Mechanism analysis found that executives’ IT background, especially the IT education background, can promote digital transformation by alleviating managerial myopia, while the IT practical background cannot significantly alleviate the managerial myopia. The digital peer effect, digital industry and province peer effect can significantly promote the positive effect of executives’ IT background on digital transformation. Further analyses indicate that the improvement of executives’ IT background is more significant in the non-state-owned firms, non-manufacturing, and the fiercely competitive industry. This article divides the executives’ IT background into education background and practical background, which enriching the relevant research on the role of managers in digital transformation.

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Drawing on upper echelon theory, this study investigates how the psychological characteristics of the top management team (TMT) drive the strategic choice to adopt AI-enabled market intelligence to achieve service personalization. It positions leadership not as reactive to market pressures, but as a proactive force in organizational technological transformation. A multi-source, time-lagged survey design was employed. Data were collected from 151 tourism and hospitality firms in Pakistan, with separate surveys administered to first-line managers, TMT members and customers. The data were aggregated to the firm level and analyzed using structural equation modeling in SmartPLS 4. The results confirm that a TMT’s risk tolerance and strategic vision are primary catalysts for achieving service personalization. Furthermore, AI-enabled market intelligence mediates this relationship, and competitive intensity amplifies the effect of TMT characteristics on the adoption of AI-enabled market intelligence. The findings offer managers a clear leadership development and strategic roadmap: cultivating a TMT with high risk tolerance and a strong strategic vision is essential for navigating digital transformation and building a sustainable competitive advantage through personalized service. This research presents a novel extension of upper echelon theory by demonstrating that in high-uncertainty contexts, directly measurable psychological traits of leaders are potent drivers of strategic change. It clarifies the “black box” between TMT characteristics and organizational outcomes by identifying AI-enabled market intelligence as a tool for achieving strategic differentiation.

Grounded in upper echelons theory, this research contributes to the current literature on SME digital transformation by leveraging empirical data from 372 SMEs in an emerging economy. The study investigates the influence of overconfident managers on digital transformation and its subsequent impact on sustainable competitive performance, with digital culture playing a moderating role. Our findings reveal that managerial overconfidence significantly influences digital transformation and sustainable competitive performance in SMEs. Digital transformation serves as a significant mediator of the relationship between managerial overconfidence and sustainable competitive performance. Additionally, digital culture strengthens the association between managerial overconfidence and digital transformation. Based on these insights, SMEs need to be aware of managerial traits and, in particular, need to focus on overconfident managers to embrace digitalization and enhance performance.

In a dynamic and competitive business environment, managerial ability emerges as a pivotal strategic factor for capitalizing on new opportunities within the technological revolution and digital transformation of enterprises. Based on data from Chinese A-share listed firms spanning from 2009 to 2019, this study integrates insights from the upper echelons theory and the behavioral theory of the firm to investigate the moderating roles of historical aspiration shortfalls and industrial competitiveness on the relationship between managerial ability and enterprise digital transformation from internal and external pressure perspectives. Our findings indicate a positive impact of managerial ability on digital transformation. The relationship between managerial ability and digital transformation is reinforced by historical aspiration shortfalls; nevertheless, industrial competitiveness has attenuated the aforementioned relationship. This study contributes to a better understanding of the strategic implications of managerial ability within the context of organizational innovation strategies. It offers valuable insights into the decision-making processes of firms as they navigate the challenges of digital transformation within an ever-evolving business environment.

We used regression analysis to examine the direct and interaction effects of CEO academic experience and CEO duality on digital transformation in order to explain why firms vary in their digital transformation. Data analysis of manufacturing firms listed on the A-share market of the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2007 to 2022 reveals that both academic experience and duality have significant positive direct effects on digital transformation. Both variables also mutually interact to promote digital transformation. This study not only makes an important contribution to the research on digital transformation and upper echelons theory but also provides useful guidance for firms developing their digitization strategy.

ABSTRACT CEOs play a vital role in formulating corporate digital transformation and their cognitions and behaviours are often shaped by their experience. However, few studies have explored the impact of CEOs’ experience, especially foreign experience, on firms’ digital transformation. Drawing on upper echelons theory, we examine how CEO foreign experience affects corporate digital transformation. Since CEO foreign experience is one valuable human capital resource, we also examine how it interacts with other firm resources to affect digital transformation. Using a large sample of Chinese listed firms from 2007 to 2019, we find a significantly positive effect of returnee CEOs on corporate digital transformation. This effect is also strengthened by firm slack but weakened by the presence of digital leaders. Overall, our study suggests that returnee CEOs matter for corporate digital transformation, offering important implications for firms and government in emerging economies.

PurposeSince IT investment constitutes a significant portion of a firm’s budget, evaluating IT investment performance is important for both research and firms’ operations. In the digital era, there are significant disparities in the effects of IT investment on firm performance.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the resource-based view and upper echelons theory, we investigate the effect of IT investment on the business performance of manufacturing firms. We also explore the moderating role of digital transformation and dual moderating effect of digital transformation and CEO age in this relationship.FindingsAnalyzing a sample of Chinese manufacturing firms spanning 2016–2020, we find that IT investment by Chinese manufacturing firms has a negative effect on business performance. However, this negative effect is moderated by digital transformation. Furthermore, digital transformation has a more pronounced inverse moderating influence on this negative effect for firms with older CEOs.Originality/valueHence, we reveal that the key factors for reducing the negative effect of IT investment on China’s manufacturing firms are digital transformation and the appointment of older CEOs who actively lead firms’ digital transformation.

PurposeThis study aims to reveal the mechanism of CEO overconfidence in the digital transformation of specialized, refined, distinctive and innovative (SRDI) enterprises, thereby enriching research related to upper echelons theory and corporate digital transformation.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses listed SRDI companies in China from 2017 to 2022 as a sample and adopts a fixed-effects regression model to analyze the direct, mediating, and moderating effects of CEO overconfidence on corporate digital transformation.FindingsFirst, CEO overconfidence significantly promotes SRDI enterprises' digital transformation. Second, according to the “cognition-behavior-outcome” model, we found that entrepreneurial orientation plays a mediating role. Third, based on the principle of procedural rationality and the interaction perspective between the CEO and the executive team, we introduce the heterogeneity of the executive team as a moderating variable. Our findings indicate that age heterogeneity within the executive team has a negative moderating effect, whereas educational and occupational heterogeneities have positive moderating effects.Originality/valueThis study expands on earlier research that focuses primarily on CEO demographic characteristics. It enriches the analytical perspective of upper echelons theory on corporate digital transformation by analyzing the psychological characteristics of CEOs, that is, overconfidence and its mediating pathways. Moreover, this study goes beyond the previous literature that does not differentiate between CEOs and executive teams by introducing the concept of CEOs' interactions with the executive team and including the heterogeneity of the executive team as a moderating variable in the literature. Thus, continuing to deepen the application of upper echelons theory to corporate digital transformation. Additionally, this study contributes to the literature on the positive consequences of overconfidence.

Abstract This study examines how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), green innovation, and executive attributes—grounded in Upper Echelon Theory (UET)—collectively drive green business performance in Indonesia’s hospitality sector during the post-pandemic recovery. Despite the growing emphasis on sustainable practices, prior research has often neglected the interactive roles of executive psychological traits and organisational strategies, particularly in emerging economies. To fill this void, an integrative multi-mediator model was developed and empirically tested using data from 200 managers and business owners in East Java, analysed with PLS-SEM. The findings reveal that CSR and green innovation have a positive effect on green business performance. Executive Social Orientation (ESO) and Pro-Environmental Behaviour (PEB) emerge as pivotal psychological drivers, with PEB identified as the most robust mediator translating executive orientation into improved business outcomes. However, the mediating role of green innovation is constrained by sector-specific challenges, underscoring the importance of behavioural and leadership mechanisms. Theoretically, this study extends UET to the domain of sustainability within service industries. At the same time, practically, it offers actionable guidance for industry leaders and policymakers—highlighting the need for leadership development and regulatory frameworks that incentivise green transformation. The research also suggests future avenues for cross-sectoral and longitudinal investigation.

The requirement of sustainable development has led to challenges for DTF (i.e., digital transformation of firms). Extensive studies have been conducted on how the personality traits of executives influence the behavior of firms. However, the effect of military experience on DTF has yet to be determined. This concern is addressed in this study from the imprinting theory (IT) and upper echelons theory (UET) perspectives. We aim to investigate whether and how military executives impact DTF. Analysis of data from listed firms in China between 2010 and 2020 indicates that military executives positively enhance DTF. This research also evaluates the moderating effects of symbiosis orientation and the market power of firms on the above relationship. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the impact of executives’ military experience on DTF is only significant in non-regulated, high-technology, and low-pollution industries. Our findings expand the literature on leadership and DTF. We introduce the concept of symbiosis orientation and examine the moderating roles of symbiosis orientation and market power in the above effect, which elucidates the interplay between organizations and the external environment. Our findings provide insights into enhancing digital transformation efforts by strategically selecting suitable military leadership for firms and further promoting the sustainable development of firms.

As the digital economy drives corporate financial results, the role of non-financial performance, such as environmental practices, especially seen through the prism of microscopic levels, is equally remarkable. Under the dual background of digital economy and double carbon targets, this paper selects 960 Chinese A-share listed enterprises from 2010 to 2021 as research samples, empirically analyzing the impact of digital transformation on corporate ESG performance and the mechanism between them based on corporate governance theory, information asymmetry theory, resource-based theory and upper echelons theory by the two-way fixed effect model and the moderated mediation model. The results indicate that: (1) Digital transformation can empower corporate ESG performance; (2) Green innovation plays a partially mediating role between them; (3) Executives’ foreign experience can positively moder - ate the relationship between digital transformation and green innovation. These findings remain robust after a series of tests, and digital transformation has a more significant effect on corporate ESG perfor - mance in eastern and state-owned enterprises.

Under the new background of the explosive growth of digital economy and the deep integration of real economy, how to improve the performance level through digital transformation has become the key for enterprises to achieve high-quality development. Based on the embeddedness theory and the upper echelons theory, this paper studies the logic and mechanism of network embeddedness affecting enterprise performance, in order to describe the pre-motivations and complete influencing paths of digital transformation affecting enterprise performance, and promote enterprises to achieve high-quality development by means of digital transformation. Taking the middle and senior managers of 239 enterprises as the research objects, this paper applies hierarchical regression, bootstrap and other analysis methods for empirical test, and draws the following conclusions: (1) Relational embeddedness and cognitive embeddedness have a positive impact on digital transformation, while structural embeddedness has no significant impact on digital transformation. (2) Digital transformation has a significant positive impact on enterprise performance. (3) Digital transformation plays a significant mediating role between relational embeddedness, cognitive embeddedness and enterprise performance. (4) In the context of top managerial cognition, cognitive embeddedness can better improve enterprise performance through digital transformation. These results extend the previous literature on digital transformation, proves that digital transformation has a positive effect on enterprise performance. Meanwhile, top managerial cognition is conducive to shaping the dynamic capability of enterprises, and thus plays an important moderating role in the influence path of digital transformation on enterprise performance. This study further affirms the important role of top managerial cognition, which is conducive to enriching enterprises’ digital practices and improving enterprise performance.

ABSTRACT Executives play a decisive role in the strategic adjustment of digital transformation, yet few studies explore the impact of executive equity on firms’ digital transformation. Taking 2009–2019 listed manufacturing companies in China as the research object, we integrate the interest convergence effect hypothesis and risk aversion hypothesis in upper echelons theory to explore why and how executive equity accelerates firms’ digital transformation. The research shows that equity incentive enables executives to converge with corporate interests in digital transformation. Specifically, in China’s unique internal governance and institutional environment, enterprises with low ownership concentration, minimal distortion of market factors and fewer political connections, a more significant positive impact of executive equity incentives on digital transformation. However, the supervisory role of independent directors does not work, as their selection and appointment are determined by the controlling shareholder. This article is the first to analyze the factors driving firms’ digital transformation from the perspective of executive-enterprise interest convergence.

Despite ample evidence that curiosity plays a significant role in information seeking, we know little about the influence of CEO curiosity on strategic decisions. Building on established psychology research, we distinguish between two central curiosity types: interest-type curiosity—the joyful pursuit of novel information, and deprivation-type curiosity—the urge to address and close information gaps. We hypothesize that CEO I-type curiosity is positively associated with strategic change, while CEO D-type curiosity is negatively related to it. Since CEO curiosity entails a social aspect, it influences how a CEO acquires information from TMT members. We therefore examine the moderating role of TMT size and change. Applying a novel text measure for CEO curiosity types to S&P 500 firms, we find that the CEO D-type curiosity relates negatively to strategic change, while CEO I-type curiosity does not relate to it significantly. Larger TMTs seem to alleviate CEO D-type curiosity’s negative effect, while TMT changes appear to strengthen CEO I-type curiosity’s positive impact. This study contributes to upper echelons research by providing first insights into CEO curiosity’s multifaceted dimensions and their differential effect on change.

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CEO leadership is considered a critical antecedent of product innovation performance, but the relational aspect of leadership has been largely neglected in this area. Drawing on upper echelons theory and relational leadership literature, this study explores whether, how, and when CEO relational leadership influences product innovation performance. Specifically, we analyze the underlying mechanism of TMT (top management team) voice behavior and two boundary conditions—TMT educational level and TMT age. Based on multi-source and multi-wave data on 105 Chinese firms, this study finds that CEO relational leadership plays an important role in promoting product innovation performance through the intervening mechanism of TMT voice behavior. Furthermore, the positive relationship between CEO relational leadership and TMT voice behavior is stronger in TMTs with higher educational level and lower age. This study contributes to the existing literature by empirically examining the under-investigated relationship between CEO relational leadership and product innovation performance, and by disentangling the underlying mechanism and boundary conditions.

Although Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is one of the strategic choices for digital transformation in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), its adoption remains constrained by leadership decision-making that must balance strategic aspirations with resource limitations and organizational inertia. Organizational leadership must face the dynamic and complex characteristics of digital transformation in the knowledge era. Drawing on Complexity Theory and integrating the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Temporal Motivation Theory (TMT), and the Resource-Based View (RBV), this study proposes a conceptual framework reflecting distinct strategic leadership orientations. Following a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews with SME leaders and an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) this conceptual framework contributes by reframing GenAI adoption as a complex, nonlinear process rather than a straightforward diffusion model, that includes four strategic profiles (Strategic Adopters, Aspiring Adopters, Opportunistic Adopters, and Operational Stabilizers) that affect a dynamic relationship between three key adoption dimensions: intention, motivation, and resource allocation. SME leaders can benefit from a delimitation of their strategic and operational goals while overcoming adoption barriers.

In this study, we examine the effects of bribery on the digitization of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) within Latin America. We apply neo‐institutional theory as the overarching theoretical framework to establish that bribery negatively influences digitization. We propose that firm characteristics (i.e., managerial experience and firm size) affect the firm‐level relationship between bribery and digitization. We also examine how the perceived tax burden mediates the effect of bribery on digitization. Our study is both theoretically and practically relevant. Theoretically, we are among the first to explicate the direct relationship between bribery and digitization. This novel perspective extends the information systems literature to explain digitization challenges in Latin America. For managers and policymakers, we present a path towards essential digitization for Latin American SMEs. Our empirical analysis uses secondary data from a World Bank survey of 1549 Latin American SMEs conducted over three years in six countries. Our findings show that bribery negatively influences digitization while SME characteristics positively moderate this relationship. In addition, we show that the perceived tax burden mediates the effects of bribery on digitization.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between subsidiary manager’s demographic characteristics and performance, while incorporating the subsidiary context. We draw upon upper echelon theories and International Business theories to understand this relationship.Design/methodology/approachUsing a dataset based on listed Multinational subsidiaries in India we use linear regression to establish the relationship between subsidiary external performance (host market performance), subsidiary internal performance and subsidiary manager’s demographic characteristics.FindingsWith our data set we find a positive relationship between percentage of host country nationals (HCN) in the Top Management Team (TMT) and subsidiary host market performance and that subsidiary age moderates this relationship. We also find an inverted U-shaped relationship between parent country nationals (PCN) tenure and subsidiary performance.Research limitations/implicationsOne of the limitations is that our study views the strategy process through the Upper Echelons (UE) theory lens, as a clearly specified planning process that associates strategy with intentionality. The opportunity that emanates at lower levels can turn an intended strategy into something different than what was started.Practical implicationsThe findings in this paper can be the basis for decision making on the constitution of leadership teams.Originality/valueThere is a dearth of empirical evidence and studies on TMTs in the subsidiary, particularly from the non-North American context. Using a unique data set of listed multinational subsidiaries in India, the paper explores the impact of TMT demographics such as tenure of the TMT and age of the subsidiary operations on the performance of the subsidiary.

ABSTRACT This study examines how top management team (TMT) characteristics influence intellectual property (IP) management styles in Mexican manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Using multinomial logistic regressions, factors such as firm size, age, education level, and IP awareness are analyzed in 323 SMEs to determine their effect on IP approaches. The findings indicate that larger and older SMEs are more likely to adopt proactive IP strategies. High IP awareness among TMT members strongly correlates with proactive IP management, reinforcing the importance of leadership in strategic decision making; however, the interaction between TMT education and IP experience does not significantly enhance IP management adoption. These findings contribute to the literature on SME strategic management by highlighting the role of managerial expertise in IP strategy. The study offers policy implications, particularly in the context of rising trade protectionism, emphasizing the need for government-led initiatives to improve IP education and strategic support for SMEs in global trade uncertainties.

This study examines the effect of top management team (TMT) characteristics on labor investment efficiency. Specifically, we focus on TMT within‐firm experience, tenure diversity, and the pay for performance sensitivity (PPS) dispersion as three potential factors affecting the team's group dynamics leading to labor investment decisions. Using a sample of US firms from 2000 to 2019, we show that TMTs with a greater percentage of within‐firm experience, a high level of tenure diversity, and higher PPS dispersion make more efficient labor investments. Splitting the sample into over‐ and under‐investment subsamples, we find that TMT within‐firm experience reduces underinvestment in labor while tenure diversity and PPS dispersion reduce overinvestment in labor. Our study provides practical implications for corporate boards in assessing TMT's hiring and promotion, making investment decisions, and determining top executive compensations.

The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the relationships between top management team (TMT) characteristics (including women representation, political connections, age and tenure) and company performance, moderated by corruption risk. The data analysis is conducted using financial information from publicly traded companies on the primary market of Bursa Malaysia for the period spanning from 2018 to 2022. The regression analysis reveals a significant association between the political connections and tenure of the TMT and company performance. In addition, the moderation analysis demonstrates that corruption risk has a significantly positive effect on the relationship between the representation of women in the TMT and political connections, as well ason company performance. From a theoretical aspect, this study adds to the governance literature on how corruption risk strengthens the relationship between TMT characteristics and company performance in Malaysia. From a practical aspect, the results of this study will aid Malaysian business leaders in understanding the importance of the role of women representation and political connections in TMT, while also helping them develop their corporate governance framework better in uncertain environments. Furthermore, this study offers a unique contribution by advising company owners to enhance the influence of the TMT in improving company performance in conditions of significant corruption risk.

PurposeAlthough prior research highlights the organizational and cognitive challenges associated with achieving innovation ambidexterity, comparatively limited attention has been paid to the affective characteristics that may differentiate top management teams (TMTs) of firms. The authors build on emerging research and identify TMT entrepreneurial passion diversity as an affective characteristic with particular relevance to innovation ambidexterity.Design/methodology/approachBased on data collected from 195 small- and medium-sized enterprises in China, this study uses ordinary least squares regression models to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe results show that TMT passion intensity separation is negatively related to innovation ambidexterity, while TMT passion focus variety has an inverted U-shaped relationship with innovation ambidexterity. In addition, environmental dynamism weakens the effects of TMT passion intensity separation and strengthens the effects of passion focus variety.Originality/valueThis study pushes forward the research agenda on affective microfoundations of innovation ambidexterity. It also reveals the potential dark side of TMT entrepreneurial passion by explicitly delineating its effects on innovation management.

Research background: The digital maturity of Czech SMEs is influenced by various factors, including the strategic management practices within these enterprises. Purpose of the article: The article aims to assess attitudes toward selected aspects of digital maturity in businesses concerning their demographic characteristics and the demographic characteristics of the respondents. Methods: To meet the aim of the article, quantitative research was carried out through a questionnaire addressed to small and medium-sized enterprises operating in the business environment of the Czech Republic. Statistical methods were verified using non-parametric tests, such as the Kruskal-Wallis test. Findings & value added: In their daily use, differences in dependence on gender, educational attainment, and age of the entrepreneur are identified. Three of four SME owners/managers said digital skills are needed to fulfil their job responsibilities. There are differences between entrepreneurs regarding the importance of digital skills, expectations, and the presence of computer infrastructure concerning the highest education achieved. There are also partial differences in attitudes with regard to gender. The demographic characteristics of an enterprise, such as the size, duration of the enterprise, and the total value of assets, are only of secondary importance for the perception of digital maturity and SMEs' use of software applications. The effect of demographic characteristics on attitudes towards digital skills and the presence of computer infrastructure in the enterprise has yet to be identified. The findings are important not only for SMEs themselves, but also for structures at the level of national policies responsible for the growth of the business environment. The empirical findings are crucial for national policymakers to better design support systems for SME owners and managers in digital maturity.

We draw on the attention-based view of the firm to examine whether and when the presence of a CIO in the TMT has a positive effect on both firms’ ideated digital innovation (IDI) (i.e., the intensity of firms’ digital patenting activity) and commercialized digital innovation (CDI) (i.e., the digital sophistication of firms’ new products). Building on the idea that attention processes are context dependent, we also explore the moderating roles of CEO characteristics (IT background and role tenure) as well as environmental characteristics (the industry’s IT attention). We analyze data from a cross-industry panel of U.S. S&P 500 firms over eight years that includes up to 2,852 firm-year observations. The results indicate that CIO presence in the TMT is positively related to a firm’s IDI and CDI. Furthermore, they show that the organizational context related to CEO characteristics moderates the CIO-CDI relationship and that the environmental context related to the industry’s IT attention moderates the CIO-IDI relationship. Our research contributes to the information systems literature by providing robust evidence that CIO presence in the TMT positively influences a firm’s digital innovation outcomes, showing how internal and external boundary conditions affect the work of CIOs, and elaborating the role of managerial attention as an underlying mechanism explaining digital innovation.

Digital transformation has emerged as one of the main strategic priorities of large organizations that are aiming at increasing the level of efficiency of their operations, their competitiveness, and the longer-lasting value generation. However, even with the intensive investment in innovative technologies, most businesses are unable to achieve quantifiable benefits because of the poor connections of digital projects with the governance system. This paper examines the manner in which IT governance maturity, operationalized with the internationally acknowledged frameworks, including COBIT and ITIL, leads to business value, ROI, and operational efficiency within large organizations that are in the midst of digital transformation. The data collected by the study through a cross-sectional empirical design is based on primary survey data of senior IT and business leaders and secondary organizational performance data to explore the quantitative relationships among the governance capability, implementation of digital strategies, and performance results. In testing the testing of the direct and the moderating impacts of governance maturity on the digital transformation success, structural equation modelling (SEM) is used. The results show that organizations that are more mature in IT governance have much more adequate alignment of technology investments with enterprise goals, which lead to greater process reliability, better cost efficiency, and higher ROI on digital endeavors. Findings also indicate that a clear strategy of digital transformation increases the influence of the governance maturity by increasing transparency of the decisions made, the managing of risks as well as collaboration across functions. The study adds to the existing body of knowledge on governance and digital transformation by combining both areas of study into a single empirical framework, and to practice by providing practical implications to CIOs, CTOs, and policymakers that aim to streamline governance frameworks. The results highlight why powerful governance tools are required to make sure that technological investments can bring about a sustainable measurable business value.

PurposeThe paper aims to contribute to the advancement of the debate on digital innovation and entrepreneurship from a cross-generational perspective in the context of family businesses. Specifically, the paper explores the contribution provided by the young generations of entrepreneurs to the digital transformation and resilience of family businesses during the pandemic emergence of COVID-19. Focusing on the need for a major understanding of digital resilience in the context of family businesses and small and medium-sized enterprises, the paper aims to provide theoretical and empirical contributions in replying to the following research question: How did young entrepreneurs contribute to the resilience and the digital transformation of their family businesses during COVID-19?Design/methodology/approachThe methodology consisted of a two-stage qualitative investigation including a focus group managed in presence with the involvement of 24 young entrepreneurs and a self-administered online survey involving the family businesses belonging to the Association of Young Entrepreneurs of Confindustria Puglia (South Italy) that has allowed to collect 47 replies, with a 32% response rate.FindingsThe paper presents evidence about the resilience of family businesses during the COVID-19 supported by the disruptive role of emerging digital technologies. Our analysis demonstrates that young entrepreneurs adopted different patterns of digital transformations, depending on the firm’s industry and the family firm’s digital maturity. Digital resilience in the context of the observed family businesses produced different benefits in terms of competitiveness, effectiveness of decision-making, visibility and communication and new opportunities for value creation; it occurred in several business areas, including production, logistics, sales and human resources management.Practical implicationsThe study highlights the relevant role that younger generations can play in exploring innovation opportunities associated with digitalisation as well as in contributing to reinforce innovation and resilience capability of their family businesses through collaboration with external stakeholders and ecosystems.Originality/valueThe value of the research consists in the attempt to analyse the meaning and implication of digital innovation in the context of family business as a driver for their resilience capability. The Family Businesses Digital Readiness and Young Entrepreneurs Contributions Matrix presented into the study as an original contribution of synthesis of the evidence collected.

Digital transformation has become a strategic imperative for SMEs in emerging economies; however, a gap persists between the institutional discourse promoting artificial intelligence (AI) and the actual capabilities of local business ecosystems. This study characterizes the level of digital marketing maturity and the disposition toward AI among SMEs in Santa Marta, Colombia, through an explanatory sequential mixed-method design applied to 256 firms (N = 761; 95% confidence level; 5% margin of error). The findings reveal that 61% lack a web presence; effective AI adoption reaches only 2%, despite 48.8% expressing interest; and the predominant barriers are cognitive and organizational (82%), rather than financial (4%). An ordinal logistic regression model confirms that digital infrastructure and economic sector are significant predictors of AI readiness. These results reveal an adoption paradox that is fundamentally cognitive in nature, challenging prevailing assumptions in public policy regarding business digitalization.

ABSTRACT Digital innovation has become an inexorable trend for manufacturing firms in the digital era. Though the motivations for digital innovation have been largely focused on in the literature, the barriers for manufacturing firms to implementing digital innovation remain underdeveloped. Actually, it is not that manufacturing firms are unaware of the benefits of digital technology, but the structural factors embedded in firms that hinder them from adopting digital innovation. In this context, this study aims to empirically investigate how and why customer concentration could be an obstacle to digital innovation in manufacturing firms, and thus provide insights for managers to break free from the trap of customer concentration and turn to embrace digital innovation. By conducting empirical analyses based on panel data of listed manufacturing firms in China between 2008 and 2019, we find that customer concentration has a significantly negative effect on the adoption of digital innovation in manufacturing firms. Moreover, the negative effect of customer concentration on the adoption of digital innovation is more pronounced when top executives have a relatively higher existing-oriented attention focus, and when the firm has spent more on relationship-specific investments. In addition, the presence of chief information officers (CIOs) can weaken the negative influence of customer concentration on the adoption of digital innovation.

This study aims to examine how executives’ information technology (IT) expertise influences audit opinions in the context of digital transformation, aiming to uncover its role in improving corporate governance and audit risk evaluation. Analyzing 2011–2020 data from Chinese A-share listed companies through regression models, it uses mechanism tests on internal control quality and governance practices, with heterogeneity analyses across ownership structures, digital maturity levels and executives’ decision-making authority. Results demonstrate that IT-proficient executives significantly increase the likelihood of receiving standard unqualified audit opinions, primarily by strengthening internal controls and optimizing governance frameworks, with amplified effects observed in state-owned enterprises, digitally advanced firms and organizations granting greater strategic power to IT-experienced executives. This paper explores new areas in audit research by identifying executive technology literacy as a non-traditional determinant of audit outcomes, bridging the study of executive characteristics with the digital governance discourse and providing actionable insights for auditor risk assessment and corporate leadership selection in technology-intensive environments.

Practice- and Policy-Oriented Abstract How does the human capital of chief executive officers (CEOs) drive digital product innovation in manufacturing firms? Analyzing data from 216 U.S. firms and over 8,000 new product announcements, this study shows that technological and business knowledge can both enable and inhibit digital product innovation, depending on the external environment. In stable settings, tech-savvy CEOs drive digital product innovation, whereas business-savvy CEOs focus elsewhere. In dynamic environments, these effects reverse. These findings offer a contextual view on the ongoing debate about the value of technological versus business expertise in top management, suggesting that neither type of knowledge is universally beneficial. We also find that CEOs serve as distinct innovation catalysts beyond their top management teams. Follow-up interviews reveal the diverse strategies they use to initiate, develop, and implement digital product innovation in established firms. Based on these findings, the study offers guidance for boards of directors on aligning CEO selection with environmental demands and for CEOs seeking to expand their knowledge base to more effectively foster digital product innovation under varying conditions.

This paper investigates how leadership architectures shape digital innovation during organizational change. Specifically, it examines the interplay between chief executive officer (CEO) digital expertise, top management team (TMT) diversity and integration mechanisms through the lens of Upper Echelons Theory (UET). An expert-coded dataset was constructed covering 12 firm-years from six global technology firms (2023–2024). Three senior coders independently evaluated CDE, TMT diversity, and integration structures using structured rubrics. Coder means were aggregated, and regression models with fixed effects, HC3 standard errors, and wild-cluster bootstraps were used to test four hypotheses. The results provide partial support for the diversity–innovation relationship. TMT diversity relates positively to product launches and, less precisely, to digital revenue share, but negatively to patenting once CEO expertise and integration are controlled. Evidence of inverted-U moderation by CDE is pattern-consistent but imprecise. Integration mechanisms mediate diversity’s effect on innovation and strengthen the moderation when chief information officer/chief digital officer/chief digital officer roles are empowered. The study is based on a small sample (12 firm-years, 36 coder-stacked observations) concentrated in the technology sector. Findings should therefore be viewed as indicative patterns rather than definitive causal effects. Future research should replicate the design across industries and incorporate automated text analytics to scale expert coding. Boards and executives should recognize that digital fluency at the top is valuable but must be balanced with empowered integrators to avoid excessive centralization. Diversity in the top team alone is insufficient; it must be coupled with integration structures to translate plurality into coordinated innovation during digital transformation. By highlighting how leadership structures influence digital outcomes, the study points to governance practices that can support more inclusive, collaborative and sustainable organizational change. This research extends UET beyond demographic proxies by introducing substantive measures of CEO expertise and integration roles. It also demonstrates expert coding as a transparent and replicable approach to capturing executive cognition and organizational design in the context of digital transformation.

Data security breaches (DSBs) are increasing investor and regulator pressure on firms to improve their IT governance (ITG) in an effort to mitigate the related risk. We argue that DSB risk cannot be mitigated by one executive alone, but, rather, is a shared leadership responsibility of the top management team (TMT) (i.e., Chief Executive Officer [CEO], Chief Financial Officer [CFO], and Chief Information Officer [CIO]). Our results suggest that IT-savvy CEOs see technologies related to mitigating DSBs as a top-three most important type of digital methodology for their firm. Similarly, the results related to CFOs with IT expertise single out the critical investment in controls designed to prevent DSBs. Our strong findings for CIOs on the TMT add to the related guidance from COBIT 5 for information security and consistently suggest that they are the key executive for securing IT systems. Finally, our granular explanation of each executive’s DSB-related responsibility could potentially provide firms the start of a governance-led roadmap for compliance to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s and Justice Department’s cyber regulations.

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Executives play a key role in the digital transformation of enterprises. However, currently, few studies explore the impact of the executive cognitive structure on the digital transformation of enterprises. In this article, we reveal the relationships of the executive cognitive structure with the digital transformation of enterprises and the situational boundary from the perspectives of cognitive centrality and complexity. Relying on cognitive and institutional theory, we argue that both executive cognitive complexity and centrality facilitate corporate digital transformation. In addition, we also believe that the strong institutional pressure caused by digital policies has enhanced the roles of executive cognitive centrality and cognitive complexity in promoting the digital transformation of enterprises. Considering China's A-share automotive industry listed companies from 2014 to 2019 as the research object, we have obtained strong empirical evidence for our views. This article is the first to analyze the factors driving firms’ digital transformation from the perspective of executive cognition.

ABSTRACT The rapid evolution of FinTech serves as a critical catalyst for enterprises’ digital transformation by providing essential financial support. Executives, as strategic decision-makers, significantly shape enterprises’ responses to technological advances. However, the role of executive backgrounds in influencing the relationship between FinTech and digital transformation remains unclear. This study constructs a city-level FinTech index using web-scraped data from the ‘Tianyancha’ platform by analysing FinTech-related keywords and calculating the density of FinTech enterprises in each city. Text mining techniques extract digital transformation-related keywords from enterprise annual reports to create a comprehensive indicator of digital transformation. Using a fixed-effects model on a panel dataset of 2923 listed Chinese manufacturing enterprises (2010–2022), the study finds that (1) FinTech significantly promotes enterprises’ digital transformation; (2) executives with academic or R&D backgrounds enhance this positive effect; and (3) FinTech’s impact is stronger in northern regions, non-state-owned enterprises, high-tech enterprises, and FinTech pilot cities. This research enriches the understanding of executive heterogeneity in leveraging FinTech for digital transformation and offers valuable implications for enterprise practices and policymaking.

In the context of China’s “dual carbon” strategy, building materials enterprises (BMEs) are in a critical period of digital and green transformation. Their diverse ownership structure and complex industrial types make them important objects of research. To address gaps in the existing literature, particularly regarding executive cognitive structure segmentation, ecological scenario (ES) influence mechanisms, and enterprise heterogeneity, this study uses Chinese BMEs as samples and incorporates industry characteristics, such as strong policy-driven conditions, a complete industrial chain, and diverse ownership types, to explore the relationship between executive cognition, ability reconstruction, and digital green innovation (DGI) performance (DGIP). Executive cognition is conceptualized through two dimensions: environmental protection cognition and digital intelligence cognition (DIC). A comprehensive test is conducted using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The results show that (1) both executive cognition and capability reconstruction (CR) significantly promote DGIP, and executive cognition has a positive effect on CR; (2) competency reconfiguration plays a mediating role in the influence of executives’ cognition on innovation performance, with the ES having a positive moderating effect on the relationship between the two types of cognitive role competency reconfiguration; (3) the influence of executive cognition varies depending on the nature of the enterprise and the industry; and (4) three types of performance improvement paths emerge: environmental-cognition-driven, cognitive ability connection, and ES-guided paths. The research’s contributions include (1) dividing executive cognition into two dimensions to enrich its conceptualization; (2) introducing the ES to reveal the dynamic mechanisms of cognition–ability–performance; and (3) conducting a heterogeneity analysis based on the nature of enterprises to deepen insights into paths of differentiated influence. This study provides a theoretical basis and practical inspiration for BMEs to enhance their DGIP.

Against the backdrop of the innovation aspiration gap (IAG), how firms strategically adjust their human capital structure to address challenges remains a critical issue that has not been fully explored in academia. Integrating behavioral theory and human capital theory, this study explores how firms respond to the innovation aspiration gap by recruiting long-term-oriented (LTO) talent. Utilizing web crawling technology, this study collected job posting data from recruitment platforms for listed companies in China’s high-tech industry from 2014 to 2024, and employed the Qwen-2.5 large language model to perform semantic analysis on job descriptions to identify positions requiring LTO talent. The findings reveal that IAG positively influences corporate demand for LTO talent. Drawing on the process perspective of performance feedback, this study examines the contextual factors influencing this relationship. In the performance evaluation stage, IAG persistence negatively moderates this positive relationship. In the attribution stage, AI technology adoption exerts a positive moderating effect. In the search and change stage, executive risk preference similarly exerts a positive moderating effect. These results were validated through a series of endogeneity and robustness checks. Further analysis indicates that recruiting LTO talent effectively narrows the firm’s innovation aspiration gap. Methodologically, this study extends the measurement paradigm for complex managerial traits by utilizing large language models. Theoretically, it bridges the logical disconnect between performance feedback and strategic execution from a human capital perspective, and deepens research on the boundary conditions of the innovation aspiration gap based on a process perspective.

While many organizations are increasingly willing to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) to support strategic objectives such as sustainable development, the ESG benefits of such adoption are not consistently realized across firms. This study investigates the boundary conditions under which AI adoption contributes to ESG performance. This study aims to investigate when AI adoption contributes to enhanced ESG outcomes by examining key organizational boundary conditions. Specifically, it addresses (1) the association between AI adoption and ESG performance, (2) the moderating roles of learning capability, digital top management team (digital TMT), and operational slack. Using a unique dataset constructed by integrating AI adoption announcements extracted through natural language processing from Factiva and ESG scores obtained from Bloomberg, this study analyzes 8469 firm-year observations from 941 publicly listed manufacturing firms in North America between 2015 and 2022. The results reveal that AI adoption is positively associated with ESG performance. Moreover, this positive effect is amplified by digital TMTs and strong learning capabilities, but weakened by operational slack. These findings enrich the literature on AI-enabled sustainability by highlighting the contingent nature of ESG outcomes and offers managerial insights for firms seeking to align AI strategies with ESG objectives.

Purpose This study aims to explore the determinants of digital technology adoption within micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) operating in a developing economy. Grounded in the theoretical frameworks of fit-viability and task-technology fit models, this study investigates the impact of environmental fit, task-technology fit and viability on the intention to adopt digital technologies among MSMEs. Design/methodology/approach This study validates the theoretical model using structural equation modeling, using data collected from 280 experienced respondents employed in the MSMEs in India. Findings The results indicate that both functional and symbolic benefits positively impact managers’ intention to adopt digital technology. However, subgroup analysis reveals that in the case of service enterprises, only functional benefits have a positive influence on managers’ intention to adopt digital technology. In addition, the findings underscore the crucial role of viability in shaping the intention to adopt digital technologies among MSMEs. This study highlights how functional and symbolic benefits motivate digital technology adoption in MSMEs. Originality/value There is a dearth of empirical studies investigating the factors influencing the adoption of digital technology by MSME firms, especially within the context of developing economies and specifically within the MSME domain. This study contributes to the theoretical discussion surrounding digital technology adoption among MSMEs in India. Through empirical research, it expands on the fit-viability model and formulates a technology adoption model within the MSME context.

ABSTRACT Blockchain technology has the promise of transforming security and trust in digital transactions. However, concerns about technical complexity and the benefits of deployment have blunted its adoption. We examine factors that influence managerial intention to adopt blockchain technology. We extend the fit-viability model (FVM) and develop a value-based technology adoption model through an empirical study of 242 managers mostly in medical and financial industries. Managers in such organizations are likely to consider fit and viability in adopting blockchain technology to store and protect data. Drawing upon Fit-Viability and Task-Technology Fit models, and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), we test a model with Partial Least Squares (PLS) to assess managers’ intention to adopt blockchain technology. Our findings indicate that functional and symbolic benefits have positive impact on managers’ assessment of task-technology fit. Furthermore, viability is an important criterion in adopting blockchain technology.

This study aims to explore paradox of in-existence in Islamic banking in Muslim-majority economies using Indonesia as a case study. The focus is on the situation where institutions exist formally but exhibit limited functionality, accessibility and socioeconomic impact. A mixed-method exploratory sequential design was adopted by integrating Financial Services Authority financial data (2020–2024) with thematic analysis of 15 interviews and 12 media discourses using Gioia methodology. The analyses showed three interrelated forms of in-existence which included institutional in-existence where physical structures and branch networks existed without ensuring equitable access, perceptual in-existence marked by weak brand differentiation and public skepticism regarding Shariah authenticity and digital in-existence characterized by slow financial technology (fintech) adoption and limited digital service integration. These dimensions collectively showed that the stagnation of Islamic banking originated from institutional inertia rather than theological constraints. The improvement of Islamic banking legitimacy requires integrated efforts among regulators, industry leaders and society through digital transformation, financial literacy programs and governance reform to convert symbolic presence into functional performance. This study introduces in-existence as a three-dimensional framework bridging institutional theory and Islamic marketing. The combination of financial indicators and interpretive insights bridges institutional theory and Islamic marketing scholarship in understanding legitimacy and inclusion gaps in Muslim-majority economies.

This study integrates the attention-based view (ABV), resource orchestration theory (ROT), and the stimulus–organism–response (S-O-R) framework to investigate how government digital initiatives influence enterprise digital transformation (EDT) through top management teams’ (TMTs) attention allocation and resource orchestration capability. Using panel data from 182 listed pharmaceutical companies in China’s Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share markets between 2012 and 2021, this research empirically tests the proposed theoretical model. Results show that government digital initiatives have a significant positive impact on EDT, with TMTs’ attention allocation and resource orchestration capability playing partial mediating roles. Notably, our findings resonate with digital transformation dynamics in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), where governments similarly play a pivotal role in driving digital adoption, albeit within distinct institutional contexts. China’s centralized approach emphasizes top-down infrastructure development and strategic alignment, whereas CEE economies rely on European Union (EU)-driven frameworks and often face challenges in translating government support into widespread digital adoption. Despite these differences, the core mechanisms—government stimuli shaping managerial attention and resource allocation—are generalizable to emerging and transitional economies, including those in CEE. Overall, this study highlights that effective digital transformation requires both policy clarity to guide TMTs’ attention and targeted support for resource orchestration, offering insights for CEE contexts navigating EU digital mandates alongside local institutional constraints.

This study aims to identify configurations of artificial intelligence (AI)-related organisational capabilities that lead to superior performance in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in an emerging market, moving beyond the assumption that “more AI usage is better”. Drawing on resource orchestration theory, the authors conceptualise how governance, skills, ethics, leadership and data infrastructure jointly enable value creation from AI. This study relies on a cross-sectional survey of Russian SMEs (October 2024 to January 2025). Of 384 firms, 47 that reported AI use were analysed. Using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), the authors examined how AI usage intensity combines with internal enablers, AI governance, data infrastructure, employee AI/digital skills, top management team (TMT) involvement and AI ethics preparedness, to explain four outcomes: operational efficiency, strategic decision quality, product/service innovation and customer responsiveness. The authors calibrated the conditions using the direct method and explored the robustness of configurations across alternative consistency and frequency thresholds. Across all outcomes, high AI usage intensity was not a core condition. Instead, multiple high-performance pathways featured AI governance as a central ingredient, frequently complemented by ethics preparedness and either employee training or active TMT involvement. Where governance was weaker, strong employee capabilities could serve as a substitute. These results show that SMEs can achieve strong performance with moderate AI intensity when organisational capabilities are well-aligned. In emerging-market SMEs, this points to an “AI capability paradox”: under the dual constraints of limited resources and weaker institutional environments, more intensive AI use does not necessarily yield better outcomes unless complemented by appropriate capability bundles. The authors shift the debate from “how much AI” to “how AI is governed and supported”. By applying a configurational lens in an emerging-market SME context, the authors reveal equifinal capability bundles, highlighting governance and ethics, paired with skills and leadership, as more decisive than sheer adoption intensity. The authors extend AI-related capabilities research to the focus on SMEs in emerging markets. Methodologically, the authors use fsQCA to identify multiple, empirically grounded resource and capability configurations associated with superior performance.

This study aims to address the limitations of current Industry 4.0 evaluation approaches, which often rely on a one-size-fits-all philosophy. It introduces a novel situational evaluation method tailored to the unique contexts of organizations, with a focus on aligning Industry 4.0 initiatives with strategic goals. A case study methodology was employed involving a large multinational company with over 30 subsidiaries in 14 countries across Europe and Asia. The company operates in three core EU industries: automotive, electric power transformers, and construction. The study involved the entire top management team (TMT) in order to comprehensively assess the effectiveness of the proposed evaluation approach. The results demonstrate that the TMT highly valued the customized nature of the situational evaluation approach. The proposed Industry 4.0 evaluation approach significantly improved the alignment of the organization's strategic objectives between TMT members. The study provides a novel approach to Industry 4.0 evaluation that starts with selecting and structuring digital maturity dimensions according to the needs, context, and characteristics of a specific enterprise; continues with evaluations of individual TMT use and completes with group discussion to achieve final strategic alignment and address common challenges in Industry 4.0 adoption (TMT alignment, workforce readiness, and technology integration).

Digitalization theoretically helps firms stimulate innovative potential, accelerate business optimization, and create market opportunities. However, not all firms that have implemented digitalization have realized the anticipated benefits. Many firms face challenges in mastering and sustaining digitalization's benefits. Given that the top management team (TMT) plays a significant role in digitalization, this article combines the resource-based view with upper echelon theory and explores the relationships among digitalization, TMT attributes, and firm performance. An analysis of survey data from 181 Chinese firms reveals the influences of positive firm performance from both internal digitalization related to process efficiency and external digitalization associated with social relations, with the former effect being larger than the latter. Moreover, regarding the two TMT attributes, informational diversity, rather than shared vision, has significant moderating effects on the above relationships. In particular, informational diversity enhances (weakens) the relationship between external (internal) digitalization and firm performance. This article contributes to the current technology-adoption literature by demonstrating the unique moderating mechanism of TMT attributes in the digitalization–performance relationship. The findings also help firms reexamine the structure of TMT members to facilitate digitalization's implementation.

Executive compensation is a key topic in management research, focusing on how firms use incentives to align CEOs’ decisions with shareholders’ interests. Yet, we know little about the influence of stock-option compensation—a major component of CEO pay—on CEO decisions facing adverse events involving multiple stakeholders. Analyzing U.S. medical device recalls between 2004 and 2017, we examine how stock options induce CEOs to protect their existing wealth while pursuing potential gains. We find that CEOs with greater current option wealth are more likely to adopt short-term impression management (IM) tactics, such as strategically timing recalls and maintaining silence in press releases, which can harm shareholders and stakeholders. In contrast, CEOs with higher prospective option wealth are less inclined to employ these tactics. Moreover, negative media scrutiny discourages CEOs with substantial current option wealth from using IM tactics, and encourages those with greater prospective option wealth to further avoid them. These findings highlight the powerful role of executive compensation, particularly stock options, in shaping CEO decisions facing adverse events.

Existing research has suggested seemingly contradictory conclusions about the efficacy of impression management (IM) tactics. While a growing body of research highlights the potential benefits of IM, other studies imply that the effectiveness of these tactics in shaping stakeholder perceptions may be limited. Our study advances theory on IM by drawing upon expectancy violations theory to develop a contingency theory of IM efficacy. Concentrating on CEOs’ positive portrayal of merger and acquisition (M&A) activity, we hypothesize that the effectiveness of this IM tactic hinges on factors related to the communicator (CEO duality), context (acquisition foreshadowing), and audience (investor type). Our results indicate that investor reactions to CEOs’ positive portrayal are more favourable when M&A activity has been foreshadowed or when the institutional investor is transient. Conversely, reactions are less favourable for CEOs also serving as board chair. Our findings provide novel insights into IM theory, suggesting that potential expectancy violations associated with IM tactics could be shaped by the attributes of communicator, context, and audience.

Abstract We propose that while positive performance feedback is positively related to firm sentiment, negative performance feedback is negatively associated with the firm sentiment. Additionally, overconfident Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) will improve the positive relationship between positive performance feedback and firm sentiment and reduce the negative relationship between negative performance feedback and firm sentiment. Using 7,182 firm-year observations for the 2004−2017 period, we show that positive performance feedback positively affects firm sentiment, and negative performance feedback negatively influences firm sentiment. We also found that higher levels of CEO overconfidence will minimize the negative impact of negative performance feedback on firm sentiment. Our research extends the current discourse on organizational impression management (proxied by firm sentiment) and CEO overconfidence research as we provide a nuanced relationship between firm performance feedback and organizational impression management. Our findings have theoretical and practical implications for corporate governance leaders and shareholders.

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PurposeMany observations suggest that the firm performance relies heavily on chief executive officers (CEOs). To better understand this reliance in the digital era, we leverage the upper echelons theory to explore the relationships among CEO digital embeddedness, digital technology (DT) enabled top management team (TMT) creativity, entrepreneurial agility, and firm performance.Design/methodology/approachThis study analyzes a sample of 189 Chinese firms. PROCESS macro in SPSS was employed to test the hypotheses.FindingsCEO digital embeddedness is positively correlated with firm performance. Of three indirect paths for this relationship, the mediation of entrepreneurial agility is statistically significant, but that of DT-enabled TMT creativity is not significant, although the serial mediation of DT-enabled TMT creativity and the firm’s entrepreneurial agility is significant.Originality/valueOur study contributes to the body of research on CEOs’ characteristics in the digital era by revealing the mechanisms through which the CEO digital embeddedness influences firm performance. Our findings also provide insights for CEOs to better understand how they should direct the evolution of their businesses.

This study aims to investigate the external and internal determinants that lead Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of oil and gas companies to obfuscate and manipulate Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting. The analysis focuses on CEO letters from CSR and integrated reports of 24 companies, between 2008 and 2021. A total of 336 company‐year observations were analyzed. Quantitative methods based on readability indexes, descriptive, inferential, and regression analysis are adopted. Macroeconomic conditions, CSR reporting frameworks, and cultural backgrounds determine the readability of CEO letters. The length of the letters, company's size, CEOs' age, and female representation on boards also influenced CEOs to engage in impression management (IM). The findings allow stakeholders to have a more truthful view of the impact of IM on CSR reporting. This study highlights an unstudied perspective on the impact of external and internal determinants on the readability of CSR reporting in an environmentally sensitive sector.

Although digital transformation has aroused the interest of scholars and practitioners, how to reach a win-win situation between economic and carbon performance in the context of carbon neutrality has not been well addressed. Based on organizational information processing theory, this study investigates how digital transformation affects economic and carbon performance via low-carbon operations management practices (LOMP) and the moderating role of CEO ambivalence. We test research hypotheses using hierarchical regression analysis by collecting data from 297 Chinese manufacturing firms. Our results reveal that all three dimensions of LOMP mediate the impact of digital transformation on carbon performance, and low-carbon products mediate the impact of digital transformation on economic performance. In addition, CEO ambivalence weakens the impacts of digital transformation on three dimensions of LOMP. The findings extend the digital transformation and LOMP literature and provide theoretical guidance for managers to achieve the goals of economic development and carbon reduction.

Integrating the attention‐based view with the strategic leadership interfaces perspective, we propose a theoretical model of situational urgency mechanisms influencing the allocation of CEOs' attention towards responsive actions. Specifically, we theorize upon the role of humility, which leads CEOs towards embracing interfaces and makes them particularly attentive to the situational context in which they operate. We test our theorization by studying corporate venture capital investments in digital ventures as a response to the situational urgency for digital transformation originating from multiple levels of analysis, internal and external to the firm. Testing a sample of 362 CEOs from 191 firms and 35 industries, we find support for the importance of CEO humility and the moderating role of the lack of top management team digital experience (team‐level urgency) and emerging digital competition (industry‐level urgency). Our study provides important insights into CEO responsiveness and advances our understanding of situated attention through the theorization of situational urgency and its integration with the strategic leadership interfaces perspective.

This study investigates how CEO succession choices – specifically, the appointment of a family-successor CEO versus an external non-family CEO – affect digital transformation in family firms. Drawing on socio-emotional wealth theory and agency theory, it further examines how top management team (TMT) diversity and slack resources influence this relationship. The analysis is based on a panel of family firms listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares markets from 2014 to 2020. Using multiple regression models with controls for endogeneity and robustness checks, the study evaluates the impact of CEO succession choices on digital transformation. Results show that family-successor CEO significantly promote digital transformation in family firms, with the effect being more pronounced in firms with stronger familial cultural characteristics. Strategic risk-taking is identified as a mediating mechanism in this process. Moreover, TMT heterogeneity and slack resources, not only enhance the link between family-successor CEOs and strategic risk-taking but also reinforce the indirect effect of strategic risk-taking in facilitating digital transformation. This study contributes to the literature on digital transformation in the context of Chinese family firms and extends research on intergenerational succession and strategic change. It highlights the unique role of family governance in mitigating agency problems and shows how traditional family culture adapts to modern economic demands. The findings provide an Eastern perspective on corporate governance, enriching cross-cultural research in this field.

Abstract This study examines the organization impression management (OIM) tactics used in agri-food cooperatives to communicate their intentions toward sustainable development. Based on content analysis of the chairperson and CEO statements of 14 agri-foods cooperatives from six years' annual reports, this study sheds light on the role of member-owned firms in shifts toward realizing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The paper proposes multistakeholder OIM tactics. These insights about sustainable development extend knowledge of how senior managers communicate their intentions in multistakeholder situations, which include shareholders, suppliers, customers, and local communities. This study contributes to the literature on organizational impression management and member-owned firms. Managerial implications are also outlined.

For CEO interviews (key to a company’s public image), this study explores how Chinese and US Fortune Global 500 CEOs manage impressions when expressing disagreements. Analyzing 60 interview videos (30 Chinese CEOs, 30 US CEOs), the study focuses on CEOs’ linguistic strategies (LSs) and nonverbal behaviors (NVBs) in disagreements. Findings reveal that both groups share similarities in their preferences for LSs such as negation, preface, and counterclaims. However, striking divergences emerge in their employment of NVBs: Chinese CEOs predominantly rely on the Palm Up Open Hand, head nods, and smiling, whereas their US counterparts more frequently employ head shakes, smiling, and the Palm Up Open Hand. Both Chinese and US CEOs project a polite and harmony-preserving image, but US CEOs project a more direct and assertive image by using more aggravated NVBs. The study provides practical insights for business communication, highlighting cultural awareness role in choosing effective discourse strategies.

Green transformation has become a global consensus, but enterprises often treat it as a symbolic strategy rather than a substantive commitment. While existing studies have exa mined how internal capabilities and external pressures influence enterprise green actions, few have explored how digital transformation enables external green strategies, such as green mergers and acquisitions (M&A), or how CEO career concerns shape such decisions. This study examines the impact of digital transformation on green M&A among Chinese A-share listed enterprises from 2010 to 2023, with an in-depth analysis of the moderating role of CEO career concerns in this process. The results show that digital transformation significantly promotes green M&A, particularly when CEOs face external and prospective concerns, whereas internal career concerns weaken this effect. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the digital–green relationship varies by CEO characteristics, industry type, and enterprise characteristics. The study enriches the understanding of sustainable strategic decision-making mechanisms in engineering management. It offers enterprises guidance on aligning incentives to promote the synergy between digital transformation and green transition.

With the rapid development of digital technologies, the importance of the technology background and innovation consciousness of top managers has become increasingly prominent. To promote corporate innovation, this study aims to investigate the impact of chairman-CEO technical background alignment on corporate digital technology innovation, then analyzes the mediating roles of innovation investment persistence and industry–university–research collaboration. The moderating effects of industry competition, government subsidies and investor attention are also explored. This study uses fixed-effects models and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis to examine the impact of chairman-CEO technical background alignment on corporate digital technology innovation. The sample consists of A-share listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2013 to 2022. Chairman-CEO technical background alignment can significantly promote corporate digital technology innovation. Mechanism analysis reveals that chairman-CEO technical background alignment influences digital technology innovation through the creation of resource effects and synergistic effects. Specifically, the resource effect is reflected in the persistence of innovation investment, while the synergistic effect emphasizes deep collaboration among industry, university and research institutions. Further analysis shows that the positive impact of chairman-CEO technical background alignment on corporate digital technology innovation is more pronounced in firms facing higher industry competition, receiving greater government subsidies and attracting higher levels of investor attention. Technical background alignment between chairman and CEO promotes corporate innovation, offering guidance for optimizing top management governance structures. By identifying innovation investment persistence and industry–university–research collaboration as key mechanisms, the findings provide actionable insights for firms’ innovation strategies. In addition, the results suggest that industry competition, government subsidies and investor attention can further amplify these effects, highlighting the importance of aligning internal governance with external competitive, policy and market conditions to advance digital technology innovation. This study conceptualizes chairman-CEO technical alignment as a form of dyadic cognitive congruence that enhances the integration of strategic oversight and executive implementation. Such alignment not only mitigates communication frictions and informational asymmetries in high-tech decision contexts but also enables the effective coupling of technical oversight and technical execution at the apex of corporate governance. Moreover, by uncovering both internal and external mechanisms, this study elucidates how cognitive alignment at the top management level fosters firms’ digital technology innovation. Furthermore, the examination of boundary conditions related to market competition, government subsidies and investor attention provides a contextualized understanding of when and where such alignment yields the greatest innovation benefits.

We draw on upper echelons theory to examine whether the AI literacy of a firm’s top management team (i.e., TMT AI literacy) has an effect on two firm characteristics paramount for value generation with AI—a firm’s AI orientation, enabling it to identify AI value potentials, and a firm’s AI implementation ability, empowering it to realize these value potentials. Building on the notion that TMT effects are contingent upon firm contexts, we consider the moderating influence of a firm’s type (i.e., startups vs. incumbents). To investigate these relationships, we leverage observational literacy data of 6986 executives from a professional social network (LinkedIn.com) and firm data from 10-K statements. Our findings indicate that TMT AI literacy positively affects AI orientation as well as AI implementation ability and that AI orientation mediates the effect of TMT AI literacy on AI implementation ability. Further, we show that the effect of TMT AI literacy on AI implementation ability is stronger in startups than in incumbent firms. We contribute to upper echelons literature by introducing AI literacy as a skill-oriented perspective on TMTs, which complements prior role-oriented TMT research, and by detailing AI literacy’s role for the upper echelons-based mechanism that explains value generation with AI.

Despite much focus has been given on the relationship between leadership, innovation and firm performance, the impact of green entrepreneurial leadership (GEL) and Artificial Intelligence - driven green process innovation (AI-driven GPI) on firm performance (financial and environmental) remains unclear. Based on upper echelons theory, this study hypothesized that GEL has a positive impact on AI-driven GPI, while green technology turbulence (GTT) moderates this relationship. AI-driven GPI acts as a mediator between GEL and firm performance. We tested the research hypotheses using data from 255 Small and Medium Size Enterprises in China's Traditional Chinese Medicine manufacturing industry. The results indicate that GEL positively impacts AI-driven GPI, while GTT negatively moderates this effect. Moreover, AI-driven GPI mediates the GEL - firm performance relationship. This study enhances the understanding of GEL as a unique leadership behavior that encourages innovation, identifies potential opportunities, and takes risks when leveraging AI-driven GPI to improve firm performance. Furthermore, this study addresses the debate on AI's role in environmental sustainability, identifying AI-driven GPI as a strategic pivot for change in governance, values, and culture within firms. The study concludes by providing suggestions for firms to achieve financial and environmental performance in an uncertain technological environment, thereby providing new insights for future research. Based on these findings, policymakers should develop incentives and frameworks to promote AI-driven GPI and incorporate GEL into leadership practices, enhancing firm competitiveness in the Industry 5.0 era and advancing the Sustainable Development Goals.

Based on the Upper Echelons Theory, this study investigates the impact of CEO overconfidence on the level of corporate artificial intelligence (AI) application and further examines the moderating roles of CEO tenure and board size. Using panel data from China's A-share listed companies spanning 2011–2020, we construct a measure of corporate AI application by integrating Python, machine learning, and textual analysis methods. Empirical tests are conducted using a two-way fixed effects model, and the results robustly support the proposed hypotheses. This paper pioneers in linking the determinants of AI adoption with managerial psychological traits, thereby not only extending the research perspective of the Upper Echelons Theory but also providing new empirical evidence and theoretical insights for understanding corporate digital transformation.

While AI is widely recognized as an industrial transformation catalyst, how AI translates into green innovation remains insufficiently understood. Drawing on socio-technical systems theory and upper echelons theory, this study investigates how AI adoption influences green innovation and how managerial cognition shapes this relationship. Using data from Chinese A-share listed firms spanning 2012 to 2024, we reveal that AI significantly promotes green innovation by serving as an endogenous technological force. Managerial cognition (green cognition, innovation cognition, long-termism) serves as a critical boundary condition: all three dimensions positively moderate the AI–green innovation nexus, indicating equivalent technological inputs yield divergent outputs depending on executive interpretation frameworks. Mechanism analyses demonstrate AI operates through three channels: information transparency (improving carbon data quality), compliance internalization (embedding requirements into digital systems), and value creation (transforming environmental data into profit sources). Heterogeneity tests show AI’s effect is more pronounced in high-tech industries and under intense market competition. This study reveals the moderating role of managerial cognition—and its multidimensional construct—in the relationship between AI and green innovation. Practically, it provides actionable insights for cultivating managerial cognition to bridge the gap between AI potential and green innovation realization.

With the rapid acceleration of technological revolutions and industrial upgrading, firms are increasingly exposed to environmental uncertainty, intensified competition, and continuous technological disruption. Under such conditions, sustainable corporate development depends not only on innovation performance, but on the ability to sustain innovation activities over time. Innovation resilience, defined as the capacity to withstand shocks, reconfigure resources, and maintain innovation momentum, therefore represents a critical foundation of corporate sustainability. Using panel data from Chinese A-share listed firms from 2009 to 2024, this study examines how CEO power shapes sustainable innovation resilience. Drawing on upper echelons theory and signaling theory, we investigate the direct effect of CEO power, the mediating role of corporate reputation, and the moderating role of artificial intelligence adoption. Fixed-effects regression results indicate that CEO power is positively associated with sustainable innovation resilience, and this relationship is partially mediated by corporate reputation. Furthermore, artificial intelligence adoption strengthens the positive association between CEO power and innovation resilience. By linking executive governance, reputational mechanisms, and digital transformation to sustained innovation capacity, this study advances understanding of the organizational foundations of corporate sustainability under uncertainty. The findings provide theoretical insights and managerial implications for designing governance structures that support long-term sustainable development.

PurposeIn order to effectively promote the deep integration of artificial intelligence and the real economy and empower real enterprises to improve quality and efficiency, this study regards the CEO as a high-end innovation resource and aims to empirically test the impact of scholar-type CEOs on the industrial artificial intelligence (AI) transformation of manufacturing enterprises.Design/methodology/approachGrounded on the upper echelons theory, this paper preliminarily selects A-share manufacturing listed companies in Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange that are affiliated to enterprise groups from 2014 to 2020 as samples. Furthermore, the Logit regression is conducted to analyze the influence of scholar-type CEOs about industrial AI transformation.FindingsThe results show that scholar-type CEO plays a significant role in promoting industrial AI transformation. The parent-subsidiary corporations executives' ties positively moderates the impact of scholar-type CEOs on industrial AI transformation. Further, internal control quality plays a partial mediating role between scholar-type CEOs and industrial AI transformation. Compared with private enterprises, scholar-type CEOs play a stronger role in promoting industrial AI transformation of state-owned enterprises.Originality/valueFirst, this paper expands the research related to the influencing factors of industrial AI transformation based on upper echelons theory and clarifies the influencing mechanism of scholar-type CEOs affecting industrial AI transformation from the perspective of executives' behavior. Second, this study further enriches the research framework on the economic consequences of scholar-type CEOs and provides a useful supplement to the research literature in the field of upper echelons theory. Third, this paper is not limited to a single enterprise but involves the management practice of resource allocation within the enterprise groups, further clarifies the internal logic of the decision-making of industrial AI transformation of listed companies within the framework of enterprise groups, providing theoretical reference for the scientific design of the governance mechanism of parent-subsidiary companies.

Introduction The purpose of this paper is to empirically test the impact of CEO’s financial background on industrial AI transformation of manufacturing enterprises based on upper echelons theory and imprinting theory. Methods The paper preliminarily takes listed manufacturing companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets that are affiliated to enterprise groups from 2014 to 2020 as samples, and manually collects and collates datas of CEO’s financial background and industrial AI transformation. The research hypotheses are tested by stata 15.0 software. Results It is found that CEO’s financial background significantly inhibits the industrial AI transformation of manufacturing enterprises, and when the CEO works part-time in the parent company, it will strengthen the negative impact of CEO’s financial background on industrial AI transformation. Further research shows that enterprise financialization plays a partial intermediary role between CEO’s financial background and industrial AI transformation; Compared with private enterprise groups, the inhibiting effect of CEO financial background on industrial AI transformation is stronger in state-owned enterprise groups; CEOs with non-banking financial background have a stronger inhibitory effect on industrial AI transformation. Discussion Firstly, based on the process of making business decisions, it verifies and clarifies the action mechanism of CEO’s financial background on industrial AI transformation through internal driving mechanism, which expands the research horizon of industrial AI transformation, and further applies the Imprinting Theory in biology to the research of business decision-making, which forms a beneficial complement to the relevant research on economic consequences of CEO’s financial background. Secondly, different from the research of single independent company, this paper focuses on the special situation of parent-subsidiary corporate governance, and explores the mechanism of action, deepening the research on the synergy of enterprise groups. Finally, this paper further explores the influence of CEO’s financial background on industrial AI transformation, which is conducive to a deeper understanding of the heterogeneity of managers except manpower and capital factors in the industrial AI transformation practice of manufacturing enterprises, and provides a new idea and a more comprehensive analysis perspective for industrial AI transformation.

This study aims to investigate the role of technological core executives in driving industrial artificial intelligence (AI) transformation within Chinese manufacturing enterprises, delve into the synergistic mechanisms of parent–subsidiary executive connections and further analyze the value creation effects of this transformation process on manufacturing enterprises. This study focuses on manufacturing-listed enterprises in China’s A-share market from 2010 to 2022. By integrating multidimensional data streams and developing a structured indicator system for industrial AI transformation, a data set comprising 4,970 valid observations was derived from 710 unique companies. The analysis leverages logistic regression and ordinary least squares regression methodologies to empirically assess the relationships between key variables. Technological core executives significantly expedite industrial AI transformation, especially in firms with strong parent–subsidiary executive connections, and when subsidiaries possess relatively abundant available resources. Furthermore, industrial AI transformation enhances supply chain efficiency and digital innovation capabilities, ultimately resulting in sustained competitive advantages. This study integrates upper-echelon theory with literature on industrial AI transformation, revealing the pivotal role played by technological core executives in the process of technological change. Furthermore, it also extends the understanding of hierarchical governance in emerging economies by elucidating the synergistic role of parent–subsidiary executive networks.

This paper applies upper echelons theory to investigate whether chief information officers (CIOs) and boards of directors affect the development of AI orientation, which represents firms’ overall strategic direction and goals regarding the introduction and application of artificial intelligence (AI)technology. We tested our model using a dataset drawn from 1,454 publicly listed firms in China. Our findings show that the presence of a CIO positively influences AI orientation and that board educational diversity, R&D experience, and AI experience positively moderate the CIO’s effect on AI orientation. Our post hoc analysis further demonstrates that these board characteristics represent contingencies that impact AI orientation but not conventional IT orientation. This paper contributes to the upper echelons literature and IT management research by offering contextualized arguments that explain new business and IT strategies such as AI orientation. Further, our findings suggest important implications about how to build top management teams and boards capable of effectively developing AI orientations

PurposeDrawing on upper echelons theory (UET), this study empirically explores how artificial intelligence (AI) has influenced the top management team’s (TMT) decision-making process in business management.Design/methodology/approachThis article is based on 21 semi-structured interviews with top managers leading AI integration in their organizations. It adopts an inductive approach and applies the Gioia methodology.FindingsThe research identifies four primary areas of impact of AI for TMTs in managing digital business processes: (1) hybrid decision-making process, (2) AI’s ethical implications, (3) TMT governance through AI, and (4) AI-driven competitive advantage. Also, a framework has been developed that provides an initial understanding of how integrating AI in organizations affects the TMT’s decision-making process.Practical implicationsThe study provides practical insights for the TMT leveraging AI technologies to enhance decision-making in managing business processes. Additionally, it offers helpful guidance for organizations to stay at the forefront of innovation and adaptability in an ever-evolving world.Originality/valueOur findings highlight the critical role of TMT’s decision-making in managing business processes transformed by AI. Moreover, the study extends the UET, highlighting how the integration of AI influences the TMT’s decision-making process and how ethical implications impact these decisions and business management.

This study aims to investigate how managerial practices influence artificial intelligence (AI) post-implementation success in Iran’s tourism and hospitality sector, with transactional and transformational leadership styles as moderators, to optimize AI adoption outcomes. Grounded in Resource-Based View (RBV) and Upper Echelons Theory, data were collected from 218 Iranian tourism and hospitality firms using a survey. Hypotheses were tested via Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling to analyze complex relationships. Training and education, business process re-engineering (BPR) and system integration significantly enhance AI post-implementation success, which positively impacts financial performance. Transformational leadership positively moderates project management’s effect, whereas transactional leadership negatively moderates BPR’s impact. Project management shows no direct effect, highlighting contextual challenges. Managers should prioritize training, BPR and system integration to maximize AI benefits. Transformational leadership fosters innovation in AI projects, whereas transactional leadership may hinder creative processes like BPR. Policymakers can support AI adoption through skill development and workforce stability programs. This study uniquely integrates RBV and Upper Echelons Theory to examine AI post-implementation success, an underexplored phase, in Iran’s tourism sector. It identifies effective practices and leadership moderation role, offering a novel framework for AI optimization.

This study investigates how firm-level political sentiment influences Chief Diversity Officer (DO) appointments in publicly traded firms, examining whether heightened sociopolitical pressures produce authentic organizational transformation or symbolic responses that satisfy external legitimacy demands without substantive change. Using S&P 500 firms, we combine text-based political sentiment measures from earnings calls with original data on DO characteristics, including race, gender, political affiliation and experience. Probit regressions test associations between political sentiment and DO appointments. Robustness analyses examine DO tenure, experience levels and acquired diversity traits to distinguish symbolic appointments from substantive commitments. Firms with higher political sentiment are significantly more likely to appoint DOs, particularly those who are Black, female or Democrat-affiliated, suggesting responsiveness to external legitimacy pressures. However, the absence of a relationship between political sentiment and acquired diversity traits (e.g. international experience) and evidence of shorter tenures among DOs in high-sentiment firms indicate that many appointments may be symbolic rather than substantive. By integrating Institutional Theory, Legitimacy Theory, Stakeholder Theory and Upper Echelons Theory, we explain how sociopolitical pressures translate into organizational structures and when responses become symbolic versus substantive. We advance understanding of decoupling mechanisms in diversity governance, demonstrating how firms strategically emphasize ceremonial characteristics while limiting substantive organizational transformation.

No abstract available

Digital transformation is expected to improve the sustainability, efficiency, and transparency of public organizations. Yet, it also entails unintended consequences by generating digital red tape, defined as dysfunctional rules that impose compliance burdens through their integration with digital technologies. This study examines how organizational structure shapes the emergence of digital red tape and how these patterns affect the sustainability of digital transformation. Using two-wave survey data from public employees, digital red tape was measured as digital compliance burden and digital functionality deficiency, while formalization and centralization captured key structural dimensions. Group comparisons were conducted to assess differences in digital red tape and its two dimensions across demographic and organizational categories, followed by robust OLS regressions estimated for upper, middle, and lower bureaucratic echelons. The results show that younger employees and those in lower-echelon organizations perceive higher levels of digital red tape. Across the full sample, both formalization and centralization are positively and significantly associated with digital red tape, with centralization displaying the strongest and most consistent relationships. Echelon-specific regressions further indicate that these structural associations vary in magnitude across hierarchical levels. Centralization remains positively related to digital red tape in all echelons, while the association between formalization and digital red tape appears most pronounced in the middle echelon. Ultimately, sustainable digital transformation requires recognizing both the existence of digital red tape and the ways in which organizational structures shape its emergence and distribution, potentially constraining organizational innovation and diminishing public value.