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Papers by Sujit Sur
Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences.
Corporate Governance: An International Review, 2013, 21(4), 373-389
"Manuscript Type: Empirical Research Question/Issue: Does the ownership structure of a firm, spe... more "Manuscript Type: Empirical
Research Question/Issue: Does the ownership structure of a firm, specifically the aggregation of the different ownership types within each firm, relate with the composition of its board?
Research Findings/Insights: Using archival data from a sample comprising 1487 U.S. firms, we find that the composition of the individual profiles of directors on corporate boards (i.e., independent, affiliated or insider) match a firm's aggregated ownership configuration (institutional, corporate parent, family-entrepreneur control) even after parsing out the impact of CEO characteristics, firm size and performance. Further analyses elaborate on the specific relationship between each director profile and ownership types present within the firm.
Theoretical/Academic Implications: This study builds upon three conceptual perspectives: agency, resource dependency, and behavioral. We argue that each type of ownership has differing imperatives and may prefer different types of directors to fulfill their governance needs. The paper illustrates that corporate governance, specifically board composition, and ownership is a comprehensive phenomenon that is best understood through multiple theoretical lenses.
Practitioner/Policy Implications: This study shows that ownership and board composition are not substitutable governance mechanisms as commonly understood but might be complementary mechanisms. A finding that governance mechanisms are complementary implies that regulatory or institutional pressures to modify board composition with the addition of directors with similar profiles may affect the governance in unforeseen ways.
Key words: corporate governance, board composition, ownership, director independence, structural equation modeling.
"
While the perceptual nature of corporate reputation is rarely contested, the role of governance a... more While the perceptual nature of corporate reputation is rarely contested, the role of governance and firm financial performance does not have the same consensus. As reputation is an embedded capability that cannot be distinctly valued or traded, the ambiguity in reputation generation clouds researchers’ attempts to understand the relative importance of the underlying causal factors, particularly firm-specific attributes like board characteristics, governance and ownership—independent of the firm’s financial performance over time. Utilizing a resource—based view, we develop a theoretically grounded framework that enables us to deconstruct corporate reputation and parse out the impact at multiple levels and the factors therein. We decompose reputation into time, firm and industry level factors, offer hypotheses on the relative importance of the factors at each level, and thereafter we simultaneously assess within and across the temporal, firm and industry levels to quantify the impact of the causal factors. We find that 49.65 % of the variation in corporate reputation is firm-specific, independent of financial performance, while industry-specific variables account for just 5.04 %. The temporal factors including the multi-level interaction terms explain 46.06 % of reputational variation, of which financial performance accounts for only 18.53 % and the “halo effect” of prior financial performance is short-lived. Furthermore, the commonly accepted factors explain only 26.44 % of the total variation in corporate reputation, and some of the governance and ownership indicators contradict generally accepted agency expectations.
Journal of Management and Governance. Volume 15, Issue 3, pp 483-507, Aug 2011
The stakeholder management literature is dominated by the ‘shareholder value’ and ‘inclusive stak... more The stakeholder management literature is dominated by the ‘shareholder value’ and ‘inclusive stakeholder’ views of the corporation. Each views the governance problem in terms of inter-functional conflicts between stakeholder groups, such as between investors and managers or managers and employees, and rests on the assumption of an idealized corporate structure characterized by the separation of ownership from management. Our review of corporate governance and stakeholder conflict shows that such functional-based characterization is too simplistic and fails to account for important intra-functional conflict. Through a comparative review that considers managerial, stakeholder and family systems of governance, we demonstrate that, while the modality of conflict varies by system, substantial intra-functional conflict is endemic to each. We integrate the findings of the agency and comparative stakeholder theories of corporate governance to offer an authority-based framework with three different governance structures that offers complementary insights into stakeholder conflicts. Thus, our study highlights the important, but often neglected, intra-stakeholder type of conflict in various organizations and provides a basis for understanding their various manifestations and consequences under the different systems of governance.
Human Resource Development Review, 13 (1). p. 79-101, Mar 1, 2014
This paper proposes that the variation in perceived job stress by individuals is explained by the... more This paper proposes that the variation in perceived job stress by individuals is explained by the interaction between the situational ‘Other 3’ dimensions (locus of control, self-monitoring, and self-efficacy) and the ‘Big 5’ personality traits. Situational stressors primarily impact the ‘Other 3’ dimensions in the general model. The ‘Other 3’ dimensions mediate the stressor – job stress relationship, while the ‘Big 5’ dimensions moderate the ‘Other 3’ – job stress relationship. In the sequential process model, the ‘Other 3’ dimensions and job stress are cross-lagged related to define subsequent variations in ‘Other 3’ dimensions of personality and job stress. This perspective is consistent with the interactional perspective, wherein personality mediates the relationship of the individual with the environment. We offer several research propositions and conclude with implications for research and practice.
Corporate Governance
Purpose This paper investigates a team dynamics based approach to assess board effectiveness, n... more Purpose
This paper investigates a team dynamics based approach to assess board effectiveness, namely the interplay between boardroom decision-making processes and the board members’ cognitive mental models.
Design/methodology/approach
A socio-cognitive perspective is utilized for analyzing board processes and determining board effectiveness. Utilizing the concepts of team mental models and sensemaking, a theoretically grounded model of board dynamics is developed, along with propositions predicting the causality and effect of the socio-cognitive processes on board effectiveness.
Findings
The proposed model is able to analze the relationship among the different decision-making processes and members’ cognitive models as determinants of board effectiveness, wherein the board’s decision making process mediates the board’s cognitive model–effectiveness relationship, while the board’s cognitive model moderates the decision process - effectiveness relationship.
Research limitations/implications
The conceptual model advances a rationale that might explain the mixed or modest findings in literature on the relationship between board demographics, dynamics and effectiveness.
Practical implications
The model allows practitioners and policy makers an alternative mechanism to assess board effectiveness, that is able to not only integrate the demographic, diversity and dynamics related measures, but also enables an clear understanding of the cognitive influences on board decision making and effectiveness.
Originality/value
The conceptual model encompasses most of the relevant constructs and findings of previous studies and offers a parsimonious yet holistic understanding of the boardroom mechanisms that might determine board effectiveness.
Books by Sujit Sur
Building Business in Emerging and in Developing Countries: challenges and opportunities
Conference Presentations by Sujit Sur
We argue that the board functions of monitoring and resource providing, is best assessed by analy... more We argue that the board functions of monitoring and resource providing, is best assessed by analyzing the board's cognitive model, instead of the previous focus on diversity and demographics. We integrate the concepts of team mental models with the sensemaking constructs, to develop a socio-cognitive perspective to analyze board dynamics.
The aim of this paper is to propose an integrative framework for understanding the determinants o... more The aim of this paper is to propose an integrative framework for understanding the determinants of business strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the impact of these determinants on performance. The proposed structural equation model is based on a survey of 319 Canadian manufacturing firms.
This paper asserts that the ownership structure impacts the firm's IPO performance. We categorize... more This paper asserts that the ownership structure impacts the firm's IPO performance. We categorize ownership in three distinct types-namely individuals, corporate and venture capitalists and demonstrate that the different types of owners strongly impact IPO performance directly as well as indirectly via the intermediary factor of underwriter prestige.
Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences.
Corporate Governance: An International Review, 2013, 21(4), 373-389
"Manuscript Type: Empirical Research Question/Issue: Does the ownership structure of a firm, spe... more "Manuscript Type: Empirical
Research Question/Issue: Does the ownership structure of a firm, specifically the aggregation of the different ownership types within each firm, relate with the composition of its board?
Research Findings/Insights: Using archival data from a sample comprising 1487 U.S. firms, we find that the composition of the individual profiles of directors on corporate boards (i.e., independent, affiliated or insider) match a firm's aggregated ownership configuration (institutional, corporate parent, family-entrepreneur control) even after parsing out the impact of CEO characteristics, firm size and performance. Further analyses elaborate on the specific relationship between each director profile and ownership types present within the firm.
Theoretical/Academic Implications: This study builds upon three conceptual perspectives: agency, resource dependency, and behavioral. We argue that each type of ownership has differing imperatives and may prefer different types of directors to fulfill their governance needs. The paper illustrates that corporate governance, specifically board composition, and ownership is a comprehensive phenomenon that is best understood through multiple theoretical lenses.
Practitioner/Policy Implications: This study shows that ownership and board composition are not substitutable governance mechanisms as commonly understood but might be complementary mechanisms. A finding that governance mechanisms are complementary implies that regulatory or institutional pressures to modify board composition with the addition of directors with similar profiles may affect the governance in unforeseen ways.
Key words: corporate governance, board composition, ownership, director independence, structural equation modeling.
"
While the perceptual nature of corporate reputation is rarely contested, the role of governance a... more While the perceptual nature of corporate reputation is rarely contested, the role of governance and firm financial performance does not have the same consensus. As reputation is an embedded capability that cannot be distinctly valued or traded, the ambiguity in reputation generation clouds researchers’ attempts to understand the relative importance of the underlying causal factors, particularly firm-specific attributes like board characteristics, governance and ownership—independent of the firm’s financial performance over time. Utilizing a resource—based view, we develop a theoretically grounded framework that enables us to deconstruct corporate reputation and parse out the impact at multiple levels and the factors therein. We decompose reputation into time, firm and industry level factors, offer hypotheses on the relative importance of the factors at each level, and thereafter we simultaneously assess within and across the temporal, firm and industry levels to quantify the impact of the causal factors. We find that 49.65 % of the variation in corporate reputation is firm-specific, independent of financial performance, while industry-specific variables account for just 5.04 %. The temporal factors including the multi-level interaction terms explain 46.06 % of reputational variation, of which financial performance accounts for only 18.53 % and the “halo effect” of prior financial performance is short-lived. Furthermore, the commonly accepted factors explain only 26.44 % of the total variation in corporate reputation, and some of the governance and ownership indicators contradict generally accepted agency expectations.
Journal of Management and Governance. Volume 15, Issue 3, pp 483-507, Aug 2011
The stakeholder management literature is dominated by the ‘shareholder value’ and ‘inclusive stak... more The stakeholder management literature is dominated by the ‘shareholder value’ and ‘inclusive stakeholder’ views of the corporation. Each views the governance problem in terms of inter-functional conflicts between stakeholder groups, such as between investors and managers or managers and employees, and rests on the assumption of an idealized corporate structure characterized by the separation of ownership from management. Our review of corporate governance and stakeholder conflict shows that such functional-based characterization is too simplistic and fails to account for important intra-functional conflict. Through a comparative review that considers managerial, stakeholder and family systems of governance, we demonstrate that, while the modality of conflict varies by system, substantial intra-functional conflict is endemic to each. We integrate the findings of the agency and comparative stakeholder theories of corporate governance to offer an authority-based framework with three different governance structures that offers complementary insights into stakeholder conflicts. Thus, our study highlights the important, but often neglected, intra-stakeholder type of conflict in various organizations and provides a basis for understanding their various manifestations and consequences under the different systems of governance.
Human Resource Development Review, 13 (1). p. 79-101, Mar 1, 2014
This paper proposes that the variation in perceived job stress by individuals is explained by the... more This paper proposes that the variation in perceived job stress by individuals is explained by the interaction between the situational ‘Other 3’ dimensions (locus of control, self-monitoring, and self-efficacy) and the ‘Big 5’ personality traits. Situational stressors primarily impact the ‘Other 3’ dimensions in the general model. The ‘Other 3’ dimensions mediate the stressor – job stress relationship, while the ‘Big 5’ dimensions moderate the ‘Other 3’ – job stress relationship. In the sequential process model, the ‘Other 3’ dimensions and job stress are cross-lagged related to define subsequent variations in ‘Other 3’ dimensions of personality and job stress. This perspective is consistent with the interactional perspective, wherein personality mediates the relationship of the individual with the environment. We offer several research propositions and conclude with implications for research and practice.
Corporate Governance
Purpose This paper investigates a team dynamics based approach to assess board effectiveness, n... more Purpose
This paper investigates a team dynamics based approach to assess board effectiveness, namely the interplay between boardroom decision-making processes and the board members’ cognitive mental models.
Design/methodology/approach
A socio-cognitive perspective is utilized for analyzing board processes and determining board effectiveness. Utilizing the concepts of team mental models and sensemaking, a theoretically grounded model of board dynamics is developed, along with propositions predicting the causality and effect of the socio-cognitive processes on board effectiveness.
Findings
The proposed model is able to analze the relationship among the different decision-making processes and members’ cognitive models as determinants of board effectiveness, wherein the board’s decision making process mediates the board’s cognitive model–effectiveness relationship, while the board’s cognitive model moderates the decision process - effectiveness relationship.
Research limitations/implications
The conceptual model advances a rationale that might explain the mixed or modest findings in literature on the relationship between board demographics, dynamics and effectiveness.
Practical implications
The model allows practitioners and policy makers an alternative mechanism to assess board effectiveness, that is able to not only integrate the demographic, diversity and dynamics related measures, but also enables an clear understanding of the cognitive influences on board decision making and effectiveness.
Originality/value
The conceptual model encompasses most of the relevant constructs and findings of previous studies and offers a parsimonious yet holistic understanding of the boardroom mechanisms that might determine board effectiveness.
Building Business in Emerging and in Developing Countries: challenges and opportunities
We argue that the board functions of monitoring and resource providing, is best assessed by analy... more We argue that the board functions of monitoring and resource providing, is best assessed by analyzing the board's cognitive model, instead of the previous focus on diversity and demographics. We integrate the concepts of team mental models with the sensemaking constructs, to develop a socio-cognitive perspective to analyze board dynamics.
The aim of this paper is to propose an integrative framework for understanding the determinants o... more The aim of this paper is to propose an integrative framework for understanding the determinants of business strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the impact of these determinants on performance. The proposed structural equation model is based on a survey of 319 Canadian manufacturing firms.
This paper asserts that the ownership structure impacts the firm's IPO performance. We categorize... more This paper asserts that the ownership structure impacts the firm's IPO performance. We categorize ownership in three distinct types-namely individuals, corporate and venture capitalists and demonstrate that the different types of owners strongly impact IPO performance directly as well as indirectly via the intermediary factor of underwriter prestige.