Ann Jorissen

Manuscript Type: Empirical. Research Question/Issue: Building on the argument that diverse boards could be more receptive to stakeholder concerns, this study examines whether board diversity (in both composition and structure) is related to increased information disclosure on a firm's tax policy in response to stakeholder and societal concerns about aggressive tax policies. Research Findings/Insights: Data from large European multinationals indicate a positive causal relationship between board‐level employee representation (BLER) and a firm's voluntary tax disclosures, as well as a positive relationship for the existence of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) committee, especially with a unitary board structure. Board gender diversity (BGD) has no significant effect. Theoretical/Academic Implications: Job‐related diversity (i.e., deep‐level diversity) on a board increases the availability of firm‐specific information to the board and has more impact on firm outcomes than does non–job‐related diversity (i.e., surface‐level diversity), which increases the availability of general information. Institutional characteristics (i.e., tax enforcement and tax morale) act as either complements or substitutes, depending on the type of board diversity. Practitioner/Policy Implications: Enhancing board diversity to increase a board's effectiveness, as promoted in many corporate governance codes, should be applied with some nuance. Whereas adding employee representatives to a board reduces information asymmetry concerning a firm's tax policies, adding female directors to the board does not make a firm more responsive to societal calls for tax transparency.

Multigenerational employees can evidently impact human resource management practices in terms of effective employee retention. Arguably, a high turnover intention of young employees can hinder a company’s human resource development, while a high volume of retirement of senior employees can create a skill deficit and even a labor management dilemma. This study explored how a supportive work environment can retain employees of different age groups in Thailand’s small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly Generation X and Y. It modeled a supportive work environment that impacts the behaviors of Generation X and Y employees, taking into consideration the relationship among factors such as person–job fit, person–group fit, person–supervisor fit, person–organization fit, person–environment fit, and turnover intention. This paper statistically analyzed a set of data drawn from an attentive survey of a total of 400 employees of SMEs in 4 populous provinces in Thailand using structural equation modeling (SEM) and multigroup analysis (MGA) with the moderation effect of generations. This paper then found that person–job fit, person–group fit, person–supervisor fit, person–organization fit, person–environment fit, and turnover intention can influence an employee’s intention to remain in his/her job. Additionally, the relationship manipulation among the aforementioned variables might influence Generation X and Y employees differently. Under the circumstances, supervisory support with less group involvement may encourage the retention of Generation Y employees, whereas a sufficient focus on job suitability could improve the retention of Generation X employees.

Purpose: The paper investigates whether a family firm's control context is directly associated with a manager's stewardship attitude or whether this relationship is mediated by the manager's perception with respect to the fairness of the control processes.Design/methodology/approach: The authors have sent a survey to family businesses in Brazil. The authors tested the hypotheses with the data collected from 141 responding family and nonfamily managers with the use of structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses (SmartPLS).Findings: The authors find that more participative and more formal controls are associated with higher procedural justice perceptions. Zooming in on the types of control, namely forward-looking action controls, like target setting (TS), and backward-looking results controls, like performance measurement (PM), the authors observe that TS is significantly positively associated with stewardship identification through a manager's procedural justice perceptions for both control characteristics (partial mediation for participative TS and full mediation for formal TS). PM on the other hand is only significantly directly related to a stewardship identification if it is of a participative character. In addition, the authors find a significant moderating effect of family affiliation, increasing the strength of the association between PM procedural justice and stewardship identification for nonfamily managers.Originality/value: Prior literature focused on discussing stewardship attitudes and behaviors in family firms, but few provided empirical evidence that a stewardship attitude in a family firm is associated with contextual factors, like the design of controls in family firms in combination with a manager's individual perception of family firm's process factors.

Thailand recently reached “aged” society status, signifying that over twenty percent of the population is over sixty. Considering that Thailand has a low literacy rate, a fractured pension system, and no regulations that could provide sufficient income to cover basic needs after retirement, there will be economic repercussions if the situation is not handled soon. The government and financial institutions have been encouraging Thai citizens to prepare retirement plans but lack understanding of the root causes of being unprepared for retirement. The objectives of this qualitative research were to explore the behavior, knowledge, and preparedness towards retirement in governmental and private wageworkers. Moreover, the study aims to identify the pain points of being unprepared for retirement and deliver the optimal solutions and sustainable retirement plans suitable for each segment. This article employed a sample of 46 wageworkers in Khon Kaen, Thailand with ages ranging from 20 to 59 years old. Qualitative semi-structured in-depth interviews and qualitative content analysis were conducted with the respondents asking about their income, expenses, pains, and problems towards saving for retirement, their desired outcome after they retire, and how they would achieve it. The framework used for the in-depth qualitative interview was by utilizing the customer, problem, and solution zoom tool. The research contributions were to facilitate Thai citizens being ready for retirement stages and overcome post-retirement risks sustainably. The results revealed that the sample could be divided into four segments by their characteristics. Two low-income segments share the same traits and behaviors that can prove that financial literacy plays an essential role in retirement readiness. Lower-income wage workers do not have their money put in place to prepare for retirement. Additionally, this article discussed the study’s implications for wageworkers, employers, and the Thai government. This article recommended that Thai citizens should accumulate wealth in various ways, including investment in financial assets and earning additional income from a second job. Employers should provide suitable retirement contribution schemes. The government should launch a policy enabling above-60-year-old seniors to continue working.

In most studies, the affiliation of the manager (family-affiliated or non-family affiliated) and supposedly related behavior (agent or steward) is considered the sole antecedent to explain a family business’ (non) professionalization of managerial controls. This paper, based on Luhmann’s new system theory, examines whether a family’s decision premises influence the design of managerial controls in family firms in addition to a manager’s family affiliation status. Using survey data of 135 large and medium-sized Brazilian family firms and testing the hypotheses with SEM, this study provides evidence that a family’s decision premises significantly influence the design of managerial controls in family firms. This study provides evidence that when a family’s intention to transfer the firm to next generation (TGO) is high, more formal controls, as well as controls of a more participative nature are adopted in a family firm. Moreover, the results do not indicate that the level of family involvement in management affects the design of controls in firms with high TGO. The results only showed a significant relationship between a family’s intention to control and influence (FCI) the firm and the absence of participative controls. In addition, these findings also illustrate that each single family-induced decision premise has the potential to explain family firm behavior, since each of the two premises considered in our study is related to a different design of the controls adopted by the family firm.

Prior literature has provided inconclusive evidence on the effects of family involvement in management (FIM) on family business (FB) performance. However, so far in the literature, there have been very few attempts to investigate FIM and family essence simultaneously as antecedents of FB performance. Therefore, we address this gap by studying how a stewardship-oriented culture (being a feature of FB essence) moderates the relationship between FIM and FB performance. We test our hypotheses with the Structural Equation Modeling technique using survey data in combination with archival data on a sample of 69 medium and large private Brazilian FBs. We find that a stewardship-oriented culture makes the relationship between a family CEO and FB performance weaker and observe that a stewardship has no moderating effect on the relationship between FIM and FB performance. These findings contradict prior literature on the beneficial role of stewardship in family-managed FB. Only in case of a nonfamily CEO, a stewardship-oriented culture positively moderates the relationship with FB performance. In addition, our study reveals a U-shaped nonlinear relationship between the level of FIM and FB performance, which is consistent with recent literature on the existence of faultlines derived from heterogeneous TMT and the impact on firm outcome.

Based on contingency and agency insights, this study examines the influence of ownership characteristics on performance measurement systems (PMSs) and outcome-based compensation systems driven by differences in organizational goals and objectives between state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs) in Vietnam. The influence of ownership characteristics on the design of PMSs received little attention from researchers so far. Moreover, the few studies that are available so far only examined the relationship between firm ownership characteristics and the presence and use of economic performance indicators and economic outcome-based compensation in firms. In this study, the scope of PMSs is broader, and sustainability indicators focusing on community programs, ethical behavior, and government regulation are included in addition to economic based indicators. Analyzing survey data with the use of partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling (SEM), we find that the higher the share of the government in an organization’s capital is, the significantly more governmental duty indicators and significantly fewer ethical indicators and economic indicators are included in the PMS and outcome-based compensation systems. The inclusion of community indicators is not associated with firm ownership characteristics. Meanwhile, non-SOEs include significantly more economic value indicators, but no societal measures, like ethical, community-oriented, and governmental duty indicators.

Purpose: Although the majority of research explores the direct relationship between family control and innovativeness, the purpose of this paper is to investigate mediators that explain how family control is related to innovativeness. Grounded in agency theory, resource dependence theory, and the resource-based view of the firm, the authors suggest that this relationship operates through board task performance, that is, the level of directors’ involvement in control and service tasks.Design/methodology/approach: To test the hypotheses, structural equation modeling is applied to cross-sectional survey data collected from 329 private firms that are located in Belgium. Family control is defined as 50 percent family ownership in combination with at least one family member being involved in the management or board of directors of the firm.Findings: Four key results emerge from the analysis. First, family control is negatively associated with control task performance but does not affect service task performance. Second, control and service task performance positively influence innovativeness. Third, the negative relationship between family control and innovativeness is partially mediated by control task performance. Fourth, the presence of a family CEO and the percentage of family directors address heterogeneity among family controlled firms (FCFs).Originality/value: This paper complements and extends existing research on the relationship between family control and innovativeness by adopting a governance perspective. The authors contribute to a deeper understanding of why FCFs are more or less innovative than nonfamily controlled firms and reveal underlying mechanisms previously uncovered.