Conference Agenda

This paper explores the critical yet contentious role of organizational slack as a driver of corporate misconduct. Leveraging a longitudinal dataset comprising 3,486 firms (14,336 observations) from 2014-2023, this article shows that excess financial resources better equip decision-makers to tackle responsibility concerns, while human slack drives corporate misbehavior. Furthermore, we reveal firm opacity as a fundamental boundary condition diminishing the effect of financial slack on responsible behavior. This paper, therefore, bridges economic and organization theories. Financial slack, being easier to monitor, deters managerial wrongdoing, supporting organizational theorists' predictions. In contrast, human slack, harder to oversee, fosters misconduct, aligning with economic theorists' views. Furthermore, firm opacity emerges as a potential explanation for previous controversy, as it diminishes financial slack’s value.

• Objetivos:

The aim of this paper is to empirically explore whether the simultaneous management of knowledge exploration and exploitation influences organisational learning in firms. Specifically, this relationship is analysed both directly and indirectly through the mediating role of strategic flexibility. Additionally, the paper aims to extend previous theoretical contributions by providing empirical evidence of the relationship between strategic flexibility and organisational learning.

• Marco teórico:

The paper builds on the Knowledge-based view and arguments from the dynamic capabilities theory to logically explain the proposed research model.

• Metodología:

The paper applies structural equation modelling (SEM), specifically Partial Least Squares (PLS), to a sample of 400 Spanish SMEs. The SmartPLS3 software is used to analyse the model.

• Resultados/implicaciones:

The results confirm, first, that the combined management of knowledge exploration and exploitation positively influences organisational learning. Second, that this relationship is more complex than a direct link. Specifically, this paper identifies strategic flexibility as a partial mediating variable, thus highlighting its strategic role between knowledge and learning. Additionally, the paper provides empirical evidence of the positive impact of strategic flexibility on organisational learning.

Objectives: This study examines the impact of activist hedge funds on corporate environmental investments, exploring the moderating role of corporate governance structures, specifically independent directors and CEO duality. It aims to assess whether hedge fund activism poses a threat to companies' environmental commitments and to determine which corporate governance mechanisms can mitigate or amplify this effect.

Theoretical Framework: The study builds on agency and stewardship theories to analyze how corporate decision-making is shaped by individualistic versus collectivist governance approaches. While agency theory posits that independent directors enhance governance by limiting managerial opportunism, stewardship theory suggests that CEO duality fosters long-term value creation by aligning executive interests with the firm’s sustainability objectives.

Methodology: Using a longitudinal dataset of 1,211 firms targeted by activist hedge funds between 2012 and 2020, the study employs panel data regression.

Results & Implications: Hedge fund activism leads to a decline in corporate environmental investments. Independent directors do not significantly moderate this relationship, challenging their presumed monitoring role. In contrast, CEO duality mitigates the negative impact, suggesting they act as stewards protecting long-term sustainability. These results highlight the complexity of corporate governance structures in balancing shareholder pressures and sustainability objectives.

This study examines the impact of firms' environmental disclosures on corporate stock volatility through the lens of investor behavior, based on the attention-based view theory. Using data from 2016 to 2021, we find a positive association between environmental disclosure and stock volatility, suggesting that increased transparency attracts heightened investor attention, which amplifies volatility. However, this effect is less pronounced for firms with lower environmental performance or under lower external scrutiny. Such firms might adopt full disclosure as a strategy to offset negative perceptions of their environmental impact, thereby stabilizing stock volatility. In contrast, firms with higher environmental performance or facing higher external scrutiny may opt for "strategic silence" to avoid the risk of backlash and minimize stock volatility. These findings provide insights for managers seeking to balance environmental transparency with stock market stability.