Richard A. Johnson

University of Missouri | Mizzou · Department of Management

CEOs' commitment to the status quo (CSQ) is a prominent psychological factor leading to their resistance to organizational change. In this study we focus on the moderating role of managerial power, a central element in strategic choice, in the relationship between CEOs' CSQ and corporate divestiture activity. Drawing from the resource dependence pe...

The effect of CEO successor origin on strategic change in organizations has been inconclusive. While the conventional view suggests that more changes are likely to occur in firms led by new outside CEOs, recent evidence shows that outside successors often face challenges in affecting changes due to their lack of firm-specific knowledge. Our paper e...

Our paper intends to contribute to the restructuring literature by examining the underexplored psychological impact (i.e., the endowment effect) in CEOs' decision making during corporate divestiture. We propose that the psychological bias associated with the endowment effect will lead to lower levels of divestiture intensity. Specifically, we argue...

We examine the relationship between strategic change and CEO compensation by studying how a firm's refocusing program influences CEO compensation after completing the change. We contribute to the ‘settling up’ literature by arguing that strategic change is often uncertain for both the CEO and the board of directors responsible for executive compens...

Entrepreneurship research has traditionally focused on opportunity recognition and resource formation as processes that foster the emergence of new business ventures, through both the lens of the individual entrepreneur and corporate venturing. Although we observe that research is vibrant in these traditional areas, we also argue that the continued...

We provide a review of the literature surrounding institutional investor classifications, and we extend this research by examining the aforementioned classification systems and relate this to the three predominant financial systems (market-based, family-centred, and bank-centred systems). After integrating this literature we propose that future res...

Using upper echelons theory and the concept of "faultlines," we argue that heterogeneity on a board of directors influences discussion of entrepreneurial issues in board meetings. We also propose that meeting context can influence such discussions. Results suggest that tenure variance, firm/industry background heterogeneity, and the proportion of d...

• This paper shows that the role of managerial incentives is highlighted by a relatively complex relationship between technological competence and international diversification. By studying a sample of Standard & Poor’s 500 member firms, we explore the relationships between technological competence, managerial pay, and international diversificatio...

To reduce information asymmetries for potential investors considering investment in an IPO venture, owners can signal the firm's longer-term viability and quality in several ways. The lockup period, is one signal that can be offered. We investigated the lockup period of a sample of 640 ventures going through the IPO and find that a longer lockup pe...

Entrepreneurs with firm-specific human capital represent both a potential source of competitive advantage and a threat to appropriate the rents that are ultimately generated by a new venture. This situation presents interesting agency and resource dependence challenges. While potential investors in these ventures will want assurances that their int...

We contribute to multiple agency theory by examining cases in which ventures making initial public offerings (IPOs) have managerial agents on their boards whose goals conflict with those of the investment bank agents hired to underwrite the stock. Underwriters have an incentive to underprice IPOs to maintain strong ties with institutional investors...

Large firms with portfolios of unrelated businesses throughout the world's emerging economies, as well as many developed economies, are seeking to restructure their business portfolios to a set of core businesses. The intention of these strategic actions is often to improve performance. These large diversified business groups are actually quite typ...

The authors examine how managers select between corporate restructuring implementation alternatives and how those decisions influence the profitability of the restructuring event. They argue that managers and owners have information asymmetries with respect to the assets in the restructuring and the restructured firms' diversification strategy, and...

Board of director involvement in restructuring reveals whether restructuring is brought on as an action by the board in its central oversight role or whether managers are purusing positive strategic action or correction. Therefore, based on an integration of organization economics (agency theory and market for corporate control) and strategic manag...

As emerging economies have improved their economic institutions, the performance of many large business groups has been reduced because such groups acted as market-substitute mecha-nisms. Consequently, business groups have become increasingly involved in refocusing activities. The authors develop a framework in which such refocusing is explained as...

This article explores how venture capitalists (VC) add value to the ventures in which they invest through governance and reputation effects in the product market. Because VC are usually heavily involved in governance activities, experienced in aligning the goals of managers with owners, and experts at monitoring firms in their portfolio, they are l...

We examined the roles of institutional investors, boards of directors, and technological opportunity in relation to international diversification. Our research contributes to both agency and foreign direct investment theories. In data on 197 large U.S. firms, we found significant relationships between institutional ownership and international diver...

Examining the relationship between governance and corporate innovation strategies, we found, in opposition to the assumption that owners have a unified voice, differences among governance constituencies' preferences for corporate innovation strategies. The managers of public pension funds preferred internal innovation, but professional investment f...

The Effects of institutional investor types and governance devices on two dimensions of corporate social performance (CSP) were examined. Pension fund equity was positively related to both a people (women and minorities, community, and employee relations) and a product quality (product and environment) dimension of CSP, but mutual and investment ba...

This study examines firms that have experienced an industrial and/or environ-mental crisis and proposes that top management team (TMT) characteristics will affect a firm's ability to minimize the severity of these crisis events. Specifically, heterogeneity in the TMT will exhibit a curvilinear (U-shaped) relationship with the severity of firm crise...

When firms face declining financial performance, research suggests that cost and asset retrenchment can lead to improved performance among poorly performing firms. However, previous studies have largely focused on firms operating in mature industries. This research develops and tests arguments that cost and/or asset retrenchment strategies will hav...

This research examines an integrated theoretical model that explains how strategies for participating in the market for corporate control (acquisitions and divestitures) affect internal control mechanisms and, together, influence internal and external innovation. Nine out of ten hypotheses received support, with results showing that firms engaging...

During the 1980s a large number of firms refocused or downscoped using multiple divestitures. This paper reviews recent empirical research (1983–1996) to isolate and identify the antecedent conditions that lead to downscoping and its outcomes. Antecedent conditions include changing environmental conditions, firm governance, ineffective strategy, po...

During the 1980s a large number of firms refocused or down-scoped using multiple divestitures. This paper reviews recent empirical research (1983-1996) to isolate and identify the antecedent conditions that lead to downscoping and its outcomes. Antecedent conditions include changing environmental conditions, firm governance, ineffective strategy, p...

Both inadequate governance and inappropriate strategy have been proposed as antecedents of the divestment activity of restructuring firms in the 1980s. We combined both views in a structural equation model in which divestment intensity is directly related to firm performance and strategy, which are in turn preceded by weak governance. Some supporti...

Extending Bluedorn's (1993) review of environmental contingency theory, we examine the strategic management research conducted from 1980–1993 that explicitly deals with the environmental domain. Framing our approach as a constrained strategic choice perspective, our focus on this intersection of the strategic management and organizational environme...

This study measures the construct validity of an objective (entropy) approach to measurement of diversification strategy. Results indicate strong convergent, discriminant and criterion-related validity for the entropy measure of diversification. In particular, support for the entropy measure of diversification strategy was demonstrated through asso...

In the 1980s a number of large corporations restructured their diversified businesses through divestitures. It is hypothesized that restructuring activity focused on firms at intermediate levels of diversification (e.g., related-linked) which have a mixture of related and unrelated business units. Results confirm this hypothesis which explains that...

The lockup period is an agreement by the current owners of a new venture to not sell or dispose of their shares without the approval of the investment banker underwriting the shares of the initial public offering (IPO). We investigated the lockup period of a sample of 313 new ventures going through the IPO and find that a longer lockup period acts...

In the wake of macroeconomic changes, entrepreneurs often pursue new opportunities by developing, recombining, and integrating the necessary resources into new configurations which reshape the very patterns of competition. As such, the skills and capabilities of entrepreneurs are intricately linked to the resources and capabilities of the venture....