Organization and Strategy Seminar（2019-14）

Topic: 

1.Stakeholder Preservation or Appropriation? The Influence of Target CSR on Market Reactions to Acquisition Announcements

2.Do They Walk The Talk? CEO Narcissism and Firm Decoupling Practices

Speaker: Li Tong,Singapore Management University

Time: Wednesday, 30 October, 10:00-11:30 am

Location: Room 111, Guanghua Building 2

Abstract:

1.Stakeholder Preservation or Appropriation? The Influence of Target CSR on Market Reactions to Acquisition Announcements

This study examines how target corporate social responsibility (CSR) affects the economic gains for acquirers, as reflected in market reaction to acquisition announcement, from two distinct perspectives: stakeholder preservation versus stakeholder appropriation. The stakeholder preservation perspective suggests that positive market reaction to an acquisition stems from potential new value creation by honoring implicit contracts and maintaining good relationships with target stakeholders. By contrast, the stakeholder appropriation perspective posits that positive market reaction is primarily derived through wealth transfer to acquirers by defaulting on implicit contracts with target stakeholders. Using a dataset of acquisitions in the US, we find that target CSR is positively associated with acquirer abnormal returns upon acquisition announcement. Moreover, stakeholder value congruence between the merging firms strengthens this positive relationship, whereas business similarity between them weakens it. These findings align with the stakeholder preservation perspective and challenge the stakeholder appropriation perspective.

2.Do They Walk The Talk? CEO Narcissism and Firm Decoupling Practices

Grounded in the upper echelons perspective and decoupling literature, the second study establishes a link between CEO narcissism and corporate decoupling behaviors. We theorize that CEO narcissism is positively related to firms’ strategic “adoption” but negatively related to the strategic “implementation”. We further posit that their peers’ strategic “adoption” will further weakennarcissistic CEOs’ enthusiasm for adopting the same strategy. We test and find support for these ideas using the sample of U.S. S&P 1500 firms in two distinct strategic domains: corporate acquisition and corporate environmental practice. The implications of our findings for upper echelons theory and decoupling research are discussed.

Introduction:

Li Tong([email protected]) is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Strategic management & Organization, Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University. His primary research focuses on corporate social responsibility across various contexts. He has been endeavoring to conduct research on the intersection between corporate social responsibility and other research fields such as acquisition, strategic leadership, and social enterprise.His research has appeared in management journals such asAcademy of Management JournalandJournal of Business Ethics.

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