Dissertation proposal defense

Another important milestone in my academic career has been achieved: the defense of the dissertation proposal. In my dissertation, I link CEO wealth to the initiation of competitive wars by unitizing behavioral agency mechanisms. I show how CEO compensation is related to the choice of attacking rivals, directly or indirectly, and how rivals will be more likely to respond. Persistence, curiosity, and my mentors' devoted and self-giving work made this happen. Now I am officially Ph.D. (ABD) and in research for a new academic endeavor.

4/13/20231 min read

Title: Executive Compensation and Competitive Behavior of the Firm: A Behavioral Agency Perspective

Committee:

Dr. Tianxu Chen, Associate Professor & Chair

Dr. Olga Bruyaka Collignon, Associate Professor

Dr. Abhishek Srivastava, Associate Professor and Department Chair

Dr. Hyeonsuh Lee, Assistant Professor

Dr. Gerry McNamara, Professor, Michigan State University

Summary:

This dissertation aims to link executive compensation research and competitive dynamics. Behavioral agency research explains executive compensation as a key driver of executive behavior and firm risk-taking. Building on this premise, I argue that behavioral agency research may help expand competitive dynamics research that studies how firms systematically interact with each other via competitive actions and responses that represent firms’ competitive behavior. In competitive dynamics, the effect of top executives on a firm’s competitive behavior has been studied in terms of executive cognition, TMT demographics, and some scholars have argued that CEO-TMT pay gap may also motivate executives into more aggressive rivalry. However, the link between CEO wealth, as a driver of a CEO’s risk-taking, and a firm’s competitive behavior remains less understood. I address this gap by introducing the behavioral agency mechanisms to the competitive dynamics research by examining the role of CEO wealth in the initiation of competitive wars and the competitive reaction of the rivals.

Proposal Accepted: April 13, 2023

Current Status: Data has been collected, analyzed, and preliminary results are ready.