A Multilevel Analysis of Persistence of Students Taking a Pre-Engineering Curriculum in High School

Using data from the 2010 Indiana, USA public high school graduating class (N=55612), this project employed a multi-level analysis to determine, what if any differences occurred in majoring in science, technology, engineering, and math and freshman to sophomore year persistence, between students attending a school that offers Project Lead the Way and students that don’t, while controlling for being a PLTW student. Results imply that PLTW had a statistically significant impact on the students participating in the program excluding students who were eligible for free and reduced lunch. However, this impact does not appear to carry over to the rest of the student body that does not participate in PLTW

Goodwill Hunting:Why and When Ultimate Controlling Owners Affect Their Firms' Corporate Social Responsibility Performance

Researchers have long been interested in how owners affect firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. However, owners face diverging ethical preferences between funding and potentially benefiting from their firms’ CSR performance. To better understand owners’ influence on firms’ CSR performance, we focus on ultimate controlling owners with the highest control rights over their firms. We theorize that ultimate controlling owners with more control rights have stronger motivations and greater decision-making power to promote firms’ CSR performance to demonstrate that they are responsible owners and gain legitimacy and goodwill from their stakeholders. Moreover, we explore how this positive relationship is strengthened when ultimate controlling owners and their firms share similar corporate names and receive increased financial analyst coverage, as these conditions increase the likelihood of gaining legitimacy and goodwill through their firms’ improved CSR performance. We test our theory using a sample of 852 publicly listed Chinese firms from 2008 to 2017. Our findings support our theoretical predictions and contribute to a more nuanced understanding of how differences in ownership structure and owner type associated with ultimate controlling owners shape their motives and power to affect CSR performance in their firms

Strategic Responses of Firms to Product Market Competition

This thesis examines firms’ strategies in response to more intensified product market competition. Specifically, three studies analyse: (i) the incentive dispersion within a top management team (TMT); (ii) the relative compensation of the CEO to the compensation of other top executives; and (iii) corporate complexity. These strategies are associated with cooperation among the TMT, the CEO’s power, and corporate complexity. The results from the first study demonstrate that TMT incentive dispersion decreases when firms experience intense competition in the product market and this effect is more pronounced for innovative and diversified firms. The implication is that firms promote cooperation in the team by reducing TMT incentive dispersion when facing pressure from product market competition and that cooperation in the TMT is even more essential for firms operating in a dynamic environment, which requires quick responses. The second study reveals that the compensation disparity between the CEO and other management drops, implying less CEO power when product market competition becomes more intensified, and the impact is stronger for firms with weak corporate governance and “good luck.” The results suggest that when powerful CEOs are entrenched, product market competition can act as a substitute for corporate governance and reins in the power of CEOs. The third study shows that corporate complexity reduces firm performance when firms face increased competition in the product market. Corporate complexity can be related to the inefficiency of resource allocation as the impact of the interaction between corporate complexity and product market competition is more prominent for firms that have strong financial needs but cannot easily access capital. From a theoretical perspective, the results of this thesis show how social comparison theory, agency costs, and resource allocation issues can explain the strategic choices that firms make in response to product market competition in order to stimulate cooperation in TMT, control CEO power, and enhance flexibility and efficiency, respectively.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, Business School, 201

Grupos empresariales y reportes de sostenibilidad en América Latina

En esta investigación abordamos los reportes de sostenibilidad de los grupos empresariales. La mayoría de los informes de sostenibilidad de las principales compañías alrededor del mundo se elaboran siguiendo las recomendaciones establecidas en el Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) (Ernst & Young, 2017; WBCSD, 2017). Por ello, partiendo de los grupos empresariales del sector real incluidos en GRI Reports List para los países que integran la Alianza del Pacífico y a su vez el Mercado Integrado Latinoamericano –MILA -, esto es Chile, Colombia, México y Perú, aportamos evidencia empírica y contextual en torno a las características y consideraciones que motivan la presentación de los reportes de sostenibilidad y sus estrategias de comunicación de RSC por parte de los grupos empresariales. Por último, estudiamos cómo la calidad de estos reportes impacta en el performance financiero y cómo esta relación es moderada por variables del entorno y variables propias de los grupos. El período de análisis que abordamos es desde la creación de este bloque geopolítico (2011) hasta el año 2015, que es el último período con reportes corporativos disponibles al inicio de este proyecto de investigación. Este trabajo contribuye al entendimiento de algunos factores característicos de los grupos empresariales en el contexto latinoamericano y su relación con la calidad de los reportes de sostenibilidad. En este sentido y con base en la revisión de la literatura, aportamos evidencia empírica que permite cerrar el gap existente no sólo en el estudio de los grupos empresariales como tal, sino en la relación RSC – GE. Estudios previos se han ocupado de otro tipo de formas organizacionales, con lo cual con este trabajo en línea con lo planteado por Kolk (2016), ayuda a cerrar la brecha en el entendimiento de la RSC en una de las formas de los negocios internacionales como son los grupos empresariales. Otra contribución general que destacamos de esta tesis doctoral es de tipo teórico. Con este trabajo relacionamos las teorías que explican el surgimiento y desarrollo de los grupos empresariales con las teorías propias soporte de la responsabilidad social corporativa y la revelación de información no financiera. En este sentido integramos variables propias como la diversificación, estructura de propiedad y la internacionalización con la RSC. El hecho de aplicar este trabajo en un contexto de economías en desarrollo hace igualmente que este trabajo sirva de referente para estudiar bien sea otros contextos de economías emergentes o de otros países latinoamericanos no incluidos en este estudio. Con esto mostramos a través de la inclusión de aspectos institucionales y culturales, la relevancia del entorno al momento de llevar a cabo una investigación tipo cross-country. Adicionalmente al abordaje de los reportes de sostenibilidad, el entendimiento de las estrategias de comunicación y la evaluación de la orientación a los agentes de interés, este trabajo contribuye a entender que las dinámicas del reporte corporativo y en general de información no financiera está cambiando. Con el trabajo empírico evidenciamos que los grupos empresariales se están adaptando a las nuevas dinámicas de reporte corporativo, pero a su vez que el camino por recorrer todavía es amplio. En este sentido con este trabajo tanto en la perspectiva de la presentación de los reportes como de la comunicación de la RSC en grupos empresariales contribuimos con nuevos análisis que permiten entender estas dinámicas en estas formas organizacionales. Así mismo y de cara al futuro, el estudio del performance financiero y su relación con las formas actuales de divulgación voluntaria ha de buscar y profundizar en nuevas medidas que se adapten mejor a las especificidades de los grupos empresariales. De esta manera coincidimos con Holmes et al. (2015) cuando plantea que las medidas de evaluación del desempeño de los grupos empresariales deben ser revisadas y estar de acuerdo con sus particularidades. Por último un aporte adicional de esta tesis es que trabajamos con la información consolidada de los grupos empresariales, lo cual se aparta de trabajos previos (Véase entre otros, Khanna & Palepu, 2000b; Borda et al., 2017; Guo et al., 2018) que utilizaron información no consolidada y se basan en la filiación de las compañías a un grupo empresarial. De esta manera se logra una visión amplia del grupo al trabajar con la información agregada del grupo empresarial y poder emplear una medida tan relevante como lo es el control del grupo empresarial.In this research we address the sustainability reports of the business groups. Most of the sustainability reports of the main companies around the world are prepared following the recommendations established in the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) (Ernst & Young, 2017, WBCSD, 2017). Therefore, starting from the business groups of the real sector included in GRI Reports List for the countries that make up the Pacific Alliance and in turn the Latin American Integrated Market -MILA-, this is Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, we provide empirical evidence and contextual about the characteristics and considerations that motivate the presentation of the sustainability reports and their CSR communication strategies by the business groups. Finally, we study how the quality of these reports impacts financial performance and how this relationship is moderated by environmental variables and group variables. The period of analysis that we approach is from the creation of this geopolitical block (2011) until 2015, which is the last period with corporate reports available at the beginning of this research project. This work contributes to the understanding of some characteristic factors of business groups in the Latin American context and their relationship with the quality of sustainability reports. In this sense and based on the review of the literature, we provide empirical evidence that allows us to close the existing gap not only in the study of the business groups as such, but in the CSR - GE relationship. Previous studies have dealt with other types of organizational forms, which, with this work in line with what was proposed by Kolk (2016), helps to close the gap in the understanding of CSR in one of the forms of international business such as They are business groups. Another general contribution that we highlight from this doctoral thesis is theoretical. With this work we relate the theories that explain the emergence and development of business groups with the theories that support corporate social responsibility and the disclosure of non-financial information. In this sense, we integrate our own variables such as diversification, ownership structure and internationalization with CSR. The fact of applying this work in a context of developing economies also makes this work serve as a reference to study either other contexts of emerging economies or other Latin American countries not included in this study. With this we show through the inclusion of institutional and cultural aspects, the relevance of the environment when carrying out a cross-country type of research. In addition to the approach of sustainability reports, the understanding of communication strategies and the evaluation of the orientation to the stakeholders, this work contributes to understand that the dynamics of corporate reporting and in general of non-financial information is changing. With the empirical work we show that business groups are adapting to the new dynamics of corporate reporting, but at the same time that the way to go is still wide. In this sense, with this work both in the perspective of the presentation of the reports and the communication of the CSR in business groups, we contribute with new analyzes that allow us to understand these dynamics in these organizational forms. Likewise and for the future, the study of financial performance and its relationship with current forms of voluntary disclosure has to seek and deepen new measures that are better adapted to the specificities of business groups. In this way we agree with Holmes et al. (2015) when it states that measures to assess the performance of business groups should be reviewed and be in accordance with their particularities. Finally, an additional contribution of this thesis is that we work with the consolidated information of the business groups, which departs from previous work (See, among others, Khanna & Palepu, 2000b, Borda et al., 2017, Guo et al., 2018) that used unconsolidated information and are based on the affiliation of the companies to a business group. In this way, a broad view of the group is achieved by working with the aggregate information of the business group and being able to use a measure as relevant as control of the business group