Michael Wolff

University of Göttingen | GAUG · Department of Business Administration

In this study, we examine how personality attributes and a coordinated compensation design jointly contribute to complementarity in the CEO–CFO dyad. Drawing on regulatory focus theory, we propose that the combination of a CEO with a promotion focus and a CFO with a prevention focus benefits firms. In such a dyad, promotion- focused CEOs bring crea...

The widespread diffusion of digital technologies forces incumbent firms to drive their digital transformation (DT). DT not only involves a change in strategy but requires new institutional logics for firms helping to operate in digital business environments. Firms increasingly hire outsider CEOs to cope with this development, but the necessary inst...

Chief financial officers (CFOs) have become increasingly involved in strategic decisions. The literature has emphasized the potential benefits of this development, delineating CFOs as impartial advisors who ensure economically conscious decisions. Our study, however, suggests that the career concerns of CFOs create signaling incentives that detrime...

Environmental management control systems (EMCSs) effectively integrate environmental objectives into corporate decision-making, yet implementation costs may discourage their adoption. To understand firms’ economic motivation for implementing EMCSs, we theorize that internal and external factors drive both their economic performance and the decision...

How do board environmental experts influence corporate environmental performance? Drawing on the advisory role of the board, we examine this question and propose that board environmental expertise fosters attention toward stakeholders through the development of decision-makers’ knowledge structures and the identification of opportunities to address...

This study investigates digital anxiety as a potential barrier to the digital transformation of the finance function. To embrace digital transformation, the finance function crucially relies on the engagement of its employees. However, due to this transformation, these employees face high uncertainty regarding future job demands, possibly invoking...

Research assigns significant share price relevance to linguistic tone in earnings conference calls. Tone is, however, only one facet in the mosaic of the soft information that is disseminated in the interactive conference call setting. We argue that investors exploit further aspects of this soft information to simultaneously assess the tone's credi...

Extant research on divestiture outcomes highlights various financial and strategic bene-fits at the firm level resulting in a predominantly positive image of divestitures. Challenging this view, we provide evidence for adverse outcomes of divestitures by focusing on the employ-ee level. We argue that the divesting firm’s remaining employees subject...

In this study, we explore whether and how CEOs’ personality traits influence their dismissal-performance sensitivity. To do so we integrate attribution theory with literature on the well-established five-factor model of personality. We use a previously validated open-language tool and the Q&A section of quarterly earnings conference calls to measur...

Die Fallstudie beschreibt, wie die Umsetzung einer Strategie mithilfe von Data-Analytics-Methoden unterstützt werden kann. Die Idee des Kooperationsprojekts zwischen der Siemens AG und der Universität Göttingen war es, mithilfe von Data Analytics empirische Erkenntnisse zur Wirksamkeit von strategischen Kernelementen wie Empowerment zu gewinnen und...

While the widespread diffusion of digital technologies forces incumbent firms to drive their digital transformation, many incumbents struggle to overcome inertial forces. In order to drive their digital transformation, incumbents increasingly turn to hiring outsider CEOs. However, while outsider CEOs are known to initiate change, their ability to i...

While CEOs’ commitment is crucial to the success of digital transformation, surveys show that CEOs of incumbent firms underemphasize the urgency and challenges of digital transformation. We suggest that career penalties may discourage CEOs from emphasizing digital transformation. We argue that this is driven by governance actors’ attribute substitu...

In this study, we examine new CEOs’ use of strategic topic setting as an impression management tactic in response to legitimation pressure from the capital market. We propose that the dismissal of the predecessor CEO represents a distinct opportunity for the new CEO to gain legitimacy by departing from the predecessor’s strategic agenda (i.e., stra...

Technological advances in the field of artificial intelligence offer enormous potential for organizations. In recent years, organizations have leveraged this potential by establishing new business models or adjusting their primary activities. In the meantime, however, the potential for greater efficiency and effectiveness in support functions such...

While multinational firms invest large amounts of money in employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) to reduce turnover, there is little evidence regarding ESOPs' effectiveness in retaining rank-and-file employees and none on a global scale. Building on psychological ownership (PO) arguments, we predict that a rank-and-file employee's ESOP participati...

Well implemented and communicated, employee share purchase plans (ESPPs) constitute an effective management instrument and positively affect firm performance. However, their success depends on the participation of employees. Current studies show that there is still potential to improve participation rates. Peer effects represent a lever to boost pa...

Our study investigates the effects of board acquisition experience on value creation in cross-border acquisitions and the dependence of this relationship on acquirer and target country institutions. We draw on cross-border acquisition research and institution-based corporate governance research to argue that the effect of board acquisition experien...

On their journey toward digital transformation, industrial firms need to embrace digital innovation. The top management team (TMT) is expected to set the course for digital innovation, which is a challenging endeavour given the novel and cross-functional nature of digital innovation. We draw on role theory to make sense of emerging role requirement...

While recent studies indicate that value-based management (VBM) helps owners in aligning managerial interests (i.e., decision-influencing role), little evidence is provided for its support in managerial decision-making (i.e., decision-facilitating role). We investigate whether the depth of VBM implementation and contextual factors may determine VBM...

By appointing a chief digital officer (CDO), firms decide for a central role responsible for their digital transformation. While CDOs have recently appeared in the C‐suites of firms across the globe, the current literature lacks insights into the specific antecedents of CDO presence. Grounded in the peculiarities of the digital age, we provide theo...

Research summary This article examines the effect of dedicated institutional investors on firms’ strategy uniqueness. We build on the uniqueness paradox where unique strategies are important drivers of economic rent, yet create an information problem whereby CEOs face discounts from the capital market, thus discouraging them from selecting unique s...

Alle DAX- und fast alle MDAX- und SDAX-Unternehmen führen Conference Calls mit Analysten und Investoren durch. Empirische Untersuchungen zeigen allerdings deutliche Verbesserungsmöglichkeiten bei der Anwendung auf. Ein aus den Befunden abgeleitetes Framework kann Unternehmen unterstützen, ihre Conference Calls effektiver zu gestalten

Many firms use equity-based profit sharing to boost participation in employee stock purchase plans (ESPPs). Using a large panel data set (N=262,824) of a multinational firm, we compare the reactions of former ESPP participants and non-participants to a profit sharing distribution (PSD). We find a dysfunctional effect. Although many former non-parti...

This paper contributes to the field of environmental management control systems (EMCSs). We approach EMCSs from an economic perspective and theorize internal and external contingency factors that drive both the economic performance and the decision to implement an EMCS. We argue that the level of environmental costs induced by a firm’s pollution in...

While digital transformation pressures firms to realize the potentials of digital technologies, employees face high uncertainty regarding their future employment. This uncertainty may lead to digital anxiety among employees, which endangers the progress of digital transformation. Based on a large survey, we provide empirical evidence that digital a...

Most recent studies on conference calls focus on the costs for firms that can arise from the calls' open nature. We study the benefits of conference calls and hypothesize that firms could use the balanced scorecard concept as a framework for presenting the information (i.e., balanced information composition) in conference calls to lower the cost of...

Most recent studies on conference calls focus on the costs for firms that can arise from the calls’ open nature. We study the benefits of conference calls and hypothesize that firms could use the balanced scorecard concept as a framework for presenting the information (i.e., balanced information composition) in conference calls to lower the cost of...

By appointing a chief digital officer (CDO), firms decide for a distinct and central responsibility for the digital transformation of their firm. While the CDO has recently spread into the C-suite of firms across the globe, current literature lacks insights on the antecedents and performance effects of CDO appointments. Grounded in the peculiaritie...

In the recent decade, many firms have adopted clawback policies to prevent managerial misconduct. Clawback policies allow the board of directors to recoup incentive compensation in predefined trigger events (e.g., financial restatements). Prior literature mainly highlights that clawbacks are able to fulfill their promise and, for example, reduce th...

This study uses employee-level data from a multinational industrial firm to measure the impact of peer effects on individual decisions not to participate in an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP). The focus on nonparticipants is particularly relevant since employees that do not participate can be assumed to have less financial literacy, leading to...

The design of chief executive officer (CEO) compensation arrangements represents an important mechanism for aligning the goals of firms' shareholders with those of their managers. The explicitness of such goals (incentive explicitness) plays a vital role in this regard. We define incentive explicitness as the degree of CEOs' ex-ante knowledge of th...

Using the behavioral agency model, we analyze how two compensation design characteristics, pay-performance sensitivity and duration of CEO compensation (taking into account multiple vesting periods), affect corporate social performance. We find that the performance sensitivity of CEO pay is negatively associated with poor social performance but als...

Top management support is often proclaimed as a crucial factor for the successful use of value-based management (VBM). Moreover, recent research indicates that CFOs play a leading role in shaping management accounting and, particularly, VBM. Although this suggests that CFO emphasis has a positive impact on the successful use of VBM, empirical resea...

Zahlreiche Unternehmen nutzen Mitarbeiterbeteiligungsprogramme zur Bindung und Motivation von Mitarbeitern sowie zur Beteiligung der Mitarbeiter am Erfolg des Unternehmens. Die Implementierung und Betreuung solcher Programme ist jedoch teilweise mit erheblichem Aufwand verbunden, sodass sich die Frage nach dem Kosten-Nutzen-Verhältnis stellt. Eine...

Whereas the performance effects of value-based management (VBM) have been intensively addressed in previous research, little is known regarding whether—and which—specific managerial decisions are improved by VBM. In this study, we take advantage of merger and acquisition (M&A) decisions that allow us to analyze a specific managerial decision with a...

Recent literature suggest that aside from CEOs, CFOs’ are particularly involved in major corporate decisions such as investments. However, most empirical research focuses either on the influence of CEOs on investment decisions or (less frequent) on the influence of CFOs. In this study, we analyze the interaction between CEOs and CFOs to better unde...

The complexity of value-based management (VBM) is often not captured in empirical research. In particular, potential differences in the extent of VBM implementation are not considered. Firms are predominantly classified dichotomously into either VBM “adopters” or “non-adopters.” In this study, we aim to fill this gap by introducing a framework to a...

Employee stock-ownership plans (ESOPs) offered by multinational enterprises (MNEs) present an attractive investment for employees. Puzzlingly, participation rates are often low, raising the question what drives ESOP participation on a global scale. Grounded in the knowledge-based view of expatriate research, we build on the notion of expatriates as...

In this multilevel study, the authors investigate the influence of country-level formal institutions and workgroup behavior on foreign subsidiary employees' participation in employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs). Based on the perspectives of bounded rationality, transaction cost theory, and psychological ownership, the authors argue that weak form...

While recent studies indicate that value-based management (VBM) helps owners in aligning managerial action (i.e., control function), little evidence is provided for VBMs’ proposed support in managerial decision-making (i.e., decision-making function). Arguing that the depth of VBM implementation determines its benefits, we investigate whether a dee...

This explorative empirical study investigates which sets of portfolio restructuring design characteristics, contingent on individual firm and industry characteristics, lead to successful business portfolio transformations. We draw on insights from the strategic change, strategic fit, and organizational turnaround literature and develop a contingenc...

Previous research indicates that the performance effect of prestigious directors is ambiguous. Our study addresses this issue by integrating the theoretical lens of board capital and the institutional perspective. We argue that prestigious directors can bring benefits as well as costs. We claim that the emergence of these costs depends on the insti...

Obwohl sich die wertorientierte Unternehmensführung zunehmender Beliebtheit erfreut, stellt die durchgängige Verankerung des Konzeptes weiterhin eine große Herausforderung in der Unternehmenspraxis dar. Denn es bedarf weit mehr als der bloßen Berechnung einer Kennzahl, um die Führungs- und Entscheidungskultur konsequent auf eine langfristige Untern...

While the performance effect of value-based management (VBM) has been debated in practice and academia, recent research suggests that little is known about contingency factors influencing this effect. In this study, we contribute to the understanding of contingencies that could explain variations in VBM performance outcomes. Specifically, we (1) te...

Research summary: We analyze the effects of board industry expertise on corporate strategic change and the moderating role of institutional quality. We suggest that country‐level contingency factors mitigate the effect of experienced boards on strategy formation by providing alternative sources of information and control in strategic matters. We de...

Selbstevaluierungen von Aufsichtsratsbesetzungen und -prozessen im Rahmen einer Effizienzprüfung sollten ein Standardinstrument professioneller Gremienarbeit sein. Eine Untersuchung der Universitäten Göttingen und Leipzig analysiert, inwieweit sich dieses Instrument vor dem Hintergrund zahlreicher Diskussionen über die Qualität der Gremienarbeit be...

This paper contributes to the recent calls for studying differences in the use of Value-based Management (VBM) by developing a framework to assess the depth of the implementation of VBM (VBM-sophistication). Based on a hand-collected dataset that comprises 3,101 firm-year observations from 16 European countries between 2005 and 2012, we analyze the...

Prior empirical studies provide evidence that the learning-curve perspective from manufacturing settings is not directly applicable to strategic management settings. In the latter case learning relates to the quality rather than to the quantity of experience. Regarding the antecedents of organizational learning especially, there are still unanswere...

Since 2009, the European Commission (EC) requires firms to incorporate an array of new elements into CEO compensation contracts, such as bonus caps, claw back provisions, bonus deferral, performance-vesting, and minimum shareholding guidelines. This paper examines whether CEO contract design in line with the EC principles reduces risk-taking and it...

Michael Wolff spricht in diesem Interview über die Gründe für die Unterrepräsentation von Frauen in Führungspositionen und die Vorteile einer ausgeglichenen Führungsriege. Er spricht sich für die Erhöhung der Transparenz innerhalb der Unternehmen aus, um Frauen eine bewusste Entscheidung für chancenfaire Arbeitgeber zu ermöglichen. Er kritisiert da...

Employee share plans have become a common feature of today’s labor relations across the globe. This also applies to Siemens. Since 2009, Siemens offers an equity portfolio to almost all employees worldwide and has met with great success. Whereas the overall employee participation rate is still increasing, there is potential for participation rates...

It is a common belief that CEOs must delegate to be successful. We hesitate to support this generalization and investigate how the distribution of responsibility within top management teams (TMTs) can influence the likelihood of a CEO’s dismissal. Consistent with an agency theory perspective, our results indicate that CEOs may choose not to delegat...

This paper contributes to research on board committees by analyzing the impact of a symbolic or substantial role of committees on their decision making quality using the example of audit committees. Based on an international sample comprising 2,410 firm-year observations from 16 European countries between 2005 and 2010, we analyze the effect of aud...

We analyze the effect of employee ownership on foreign subsidiary employee commitment, individual performance and firm performance. Using a dual theoretical lens of agency theory and behavioral constructs of ownership we argue that employee ownership in form of employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) has a positive effect on employee commitment and...

The complexity of value-based management (VBM) is often not captured in empirical research. In particular, potential differences in the extent of VBM implementation are not considered. Firms are predominantly classified dichotomously into either VBM “adopters” or “non-adopters.” In this study, we aim to fill this gap by introducing a framework to a...

Since 2009, the European Commission (EC) requires firms to incorporate an array of new elements into CEO compensation contracts, such as bonus caps, claw back provisions, bonus deferral, performance-vesting, and minimum shareholding guidelines. This paper examines whether CEO contract design in line with the EC principles reduces risk-taking and it...

Are there country-level differences in the use of pay-for-performance in executive compensation contracts? We investigate how formal country-level institutions affect pay-for-performance directly and if institutions have a moderating effect on the relation between ownership structure and pay-for-performance contracts. Based on agency theory argumen...

Prior research shows both positive and negative effects of prestigious directors on firm performance. This study provides further evidence for a generally positive effect of prestigious directors by focusing on performance effects of directors with additional directorships in large companies. However, this study also presents evidence that the inst...

This paper examines the gender pay gap in top management teams and how it is affected by directors’ embeddedness. We can reconfirm the result of previous studies that differences in managerial compensation between women and men exist, even after controlling for company properties and human capital attributes. Drawing on the language theory of discr...

We investigate the performance effect of former executives serving as non-executive directors. We identify and untangle the two effects of former executives: they reduce the board’s independence and monitoring capability; and with their firm-specific internal knowledge, they more effectively provide advice to the current top management team. We sho...

We analyze director compensation in German listed firms for the 2005–2009 period. Our sample covers all listed companies in the German Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, specifically firms with shares listed in the indices of DAX, MDAX, SDAX, and TecDAX. In the last years, non-executive directors are facing increasing duties and (legal...

Obwohl sich die wertorientierte Unternehmensführung zunehmender Beliebtheit erfreut, stellt die durchgängige Verankerung des Konzeptes weiterhin eine große Herausforderung in der Unternehmenspraxis dar. Denn es bedarf weit mehr als der bloßen Berechnung einer Kennzahl, um die Führungs- und Entscheidungskultur konsequent auf eine langfristige Untern...

German Abstract: Wertorientierte Steuerungssysteme erfreuen sich zunehmender Verbreitung unter deutschen Unternehmen – mit positiven Auswirkungen auf die Unternehmensperformance. In der konkreten unternehmerischen Umsetzung ergeben sich jedoch zahlreiche Herausforderungen, welche nachfolgend anhand der Ergebnisse einer aktuellen Umfrage diskutiert...

German Abstract: Die Studie analysiert und bewertet systematisch und umfassend die Akzeptanz der aktuellen, elften Fassung des Deutschen Corporate Governance Kodex (DCGK) durch DAX-und MDAX-Gesellschaften anhand der durch §161 AktG vorgeschriebenen Entsprechenserklarungen. Analysiert wird das grundsatzliche Niveau der Kodexakzeptanz, aber auch das...

In this paper we strive to answer the question whether and when board expertise is needed to induce corporate strategic change. Building on existing studies that combine considerations of both resource dependence and agency theory (Hillman & Dalziel, 2003) we aim to integrate country-level contingency factors that influence the effectiveness to whi...

Im Juni 2012 wurde die zehnte Fassung des Deutschen Corporate Governance Kodex (DCGK) im Bundesanzeiger veröffentlicht. Der vorliegenden Beitrag analysiert und bewertet systematisch und umfassend die Akzeptanz des Kodex und das Complianceverhalten der durch den DCGK adressierten börsennotierten Gesellschaften in DAX und MDAX anhand der bis Mai 2013...

More and more companies have implemented globally standardized share plans. From 2008 on, Siemens has offered an equity portfolio for all employees across the globe. Today, more than 148,000 employees are part of the Equity Culture, following an overall positive trend. However, on a local level, participation rates are sometimes declining. A likely...

In the last years, non-executive directors are facing increasing duties and (legal) responsibilities. From that perspective, it is quite surprising that the remuneration of non-executive directors has received rather little attention so far. In this study we examine the German experience. We present the status quo of non-executive director remunera...

We document three current trends in the compensation of non-executive directors in Germany. First, firms increasingly use performance-insensitive variable pay components, like committee and attendance fees. Second, this comes at the expense of performance-oriented variable pay components, which often are eliminated altogether. Third, the performanc...

Die Frage, ob und inwiefern die Gewährung aktienkursbasierter Vergütungsinstrumente an Vorstände zu langfristig orientierten Managemententscheidungen führt, wird in der Öffentlichkeit kontrovers diskutiert. Auch die Wissenschaft bleibt bis dato – nicht zuletzt aufgrund von Messproblemen – eine überzeugende Antwort schuldig. In dem vorliegenden Beit...