Pedro Torres

Purpose: This study aims to clarify the conditions under which a CEO's celebrity status favors a company's credit rating. Building on upper echelons theory, the study includes other CEO attributes, such as political orientation, CEO tenure and age. Design/methodology/approach: A sample of 209 publicly listed companies selected from the standard and poor's 500 index was used in this study. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis was applied to analyze the configurations that enhance a company's credit rating. Findings: The findings indicate that both the presence and absence of CEO celebrity status can enhance companies' credit ratings, contingent on the presence or absence of other conditions. Conservative and non-celebrity CEOs tend to be perceived as more financially disciplined and strategically restrained-qualities viewed favorably by credit rating agencies. Conversely, celebrity CEOs – particularly those who are younger and at the beginning of their tenure, and have liberal orientations – may engage in more cautious financial strategies to safeguard their public image, which can likewise contribute to enhanced creditworthiness. Originality/value: The contribution of this study lies in reconciling divergent perspectives on how celebrity CEOs influence credit ratings. In contrast with previous research, this study shows that both celebrity and non-celebrity CEOs can enhance credit ratings, contingent on certain conditions. Moreover, building on upper echelons theory, the study conceptualizes CEO celebrity as an expression of deeper psychological attributes – such as discretion and risk tolerance – rather than simply a product of media visibility.

Purpose: This study examines the role of context, which is typically ignored in entrepreneurial well-being, by focusing on the moderating effect of cultural leadership ideals on the relationship between entrepreneurship and life satisfaction. Two leadership ideals are considered: charismatic and self-protective. Design/methodology/approach: Using data from the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) and Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, a multilevel model was tested using a sample of 46,613 observations at the individual level in 28 countries. Findings: The results reinforce the notion that individuals experience greater life satisfaction when they engage in entrepreneurship than when working for others. Charismatic leadership ideals increase the positive effect of the relationship between entrepreneurship and life satisfaction, whereas self-protective leadership ideals decrease the positive relationship between entrepreneurship and life satisfaction. Therefore, fostering charismatic leadership ideals can contribute to higher life satisfaction among entrepreneurs. Originality/value: In contrast to previous research, this study examines whether cultural leadership ideals amplify or constrain the potential benefits of working for oneself rather than for others. These arguments are built by integrating trait activation and the institutional theories and considering the role of entrepreneurs as leaders.

Purpose: This study aims to clarify the influence of different CEO’s political orientation (liberal/conservative) and corporate political activity on ESG performance, considering contingencies related to CEO attributes and corporate governance mechanisms.Design/methodology/approach: Using a sample of 131 companies from the Standard and Poor’s 500 index, this study employs fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fs/QCA) to analyze combinations of conditions (i.e. configurations) that lead to greater ESG (i.e. environmental, social, and governance) performance.Findings: Drawing on the upper echelon theory and the theory of social exchange, the findings show that different CEO’s political orientation (liberal/conservative) can contribute to ESG performance, depending on the combination of conditions. Furthermore, the results emphasize the importance of corporate political activity as a core condition to enhance ESG performance.Originality/value: Taking a configurational approach, this study explores combinations of conditions that explain ESG performance, including CEO’s political orientation and corporate political activities as antecedent conditions. Unlike past research, this study examines possible complementarities between these two conditions and assumes that different CEO’s political orientation can have a positive influence on ESG performance, depending on the combination of conditions.

Aiming to shed light on the interplay of board‐related mechanisms and their influence on sustainable development, this study examines configurations of corporate governance conditions that are associated with high and low ESG performance. Fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis was used, resorting to a sample of S&P 500 manufacturing companies that are committed to contributing to solve the climate change societal challenge (i.e., SDG13). The configurational analysis was also extended to the all sample of S&P 500 companies to assure the generalizability of the findings and provide additional insights. The findings support the functional view of the role of the board, emphasising the notion that configurations (i.e., combinations of conditions) are more important to sustainable development than any single condition. Different from past research, this study emphasises the importance of defining and implementing a CSR strategy to achieve high ESG performance, which is always present in configurations leading to the outcome of interest. Furthermore, the results also suggest that a monitoring mechanism should always be present, while an incentive alignment mechanism is only required in some circumstances. Moreover, the results show that ESG‐related executive compensation should be complemented with other mechanisms, such as board monitoring, to be effective. This study contributes to the debate on whether sustainability‐related performance alignment incentives and monitoring mechanisms act as complements or substitutes. The findings show that linear approaches might not capture the all picture, suggesting that a more nuanced view should be used in future studies, and can inform companies' strategic decisions regarding sustainability.

Purpose: This work uses survey data from the Portuguese Securities Market Commission (Comissão de Mercado de Valores Mobiliários – CMVM) to examine financial literacy and literacy bias. The main objective of this study is to shed light on this issue by identifying the individual characteristics that are associated with financial literacy, namely overconfidence and underconfidence, which in turn might help explain individuals' financial decisions. The study distinguishes two groups, i.e. students and nonstudents, and considers several characteristics that are usually employed in this stream of research.Design/methodology/approach: The data are based on a survey conducted by a partnership between the CMVM and a consortium of Portuguese universities. This paper has a three-fold aim. First, it studies the main individual features associated with objective financial literacy. Second, it analyzes the relationship between those variables and the bias between self-perceived and objective literacy, distinguishing overconfidence and underconfidence. Third, and most originally, this framework was also used to examine the differences between students and nonstudents. Those aims are pursued using cross-sectional ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions, except for the study of the literacy bias, for which the authors use an ordered probit.Findings: Literacy is higher in individuals of the male gender who are older, have higher incomes, live in metropolitan areas, are highly educated, have a field of study related to finance and have high self-perceived literacy. Younger people are more overconfident. Unconditionally, women are less overconfident than men, but conditionally, they overestimate their knowledge. People holding securities and with a field of study related to finance are more overconfident. The gender effect is mainly driven by students, and the impact of a field of study and of holding securities on overconfidence decreases and increases, respectively, for students. The results highlight the importance of financial education.Research limitations/implications: Due to the way that the questionnaire was made available, there is no guarantee that the sample is representative of the Portuguese general population, or, for that matter, representative of the typical Portuguese retail investors or households. Also, there is no guarantee that the same individual did not answer the questionnaire more than once, although this is highly improbable. The link to the online questionnaire was only transmitted within e-mail databases owned by the CMVM and Portuguese universities, so the authors cannot guarantee its unbiasedness.Practical implications: The authors' results may help the National Plan for Financial Education (the acronym in Portuguese is PNFF) fine-tune the required actions towards different target groups and, most importantly, highlight that different groups may require different approaches aiming to narrow the gap between objective and perceived literacy. The first step should be creating procedures to provide feedback on the objective and perceived literacy of those who enroll in financial formation programs.Social implications: The study distinguishes two groups, students and nonstudents, providing additional insights that might guide policymakers on how to structure financial education to enhance individual financial behavior. This is especially important in a country such as Portugal which has the lowest objective financial literacy in the Eurozone.Originality/value: This study contributes to the financial literacy literature, in particular to the stream of research that focuses on psychological biases, by shedding light on the factors associated with both individual overconfidence and underconfidence. Differentiating between students and nonstudents provides additional insights, which might guide policymakers on how to structure financial education to enhance individual financial behavior.