Topic: CEO International Experience and Firms’ Temporal Orientation During Pro-Market Reform: From a Lens of Executive Job Demands 

Speaker: Lipeng GE, Ph.D. student in Hong Kong University of Science and Technology 

Time: 14:00 – 17:00, October 27th

Venue: Room 308 , Tongji Building A

Abstract:

In this study, we address the research question of whether CEOs with international experience tend to adopt a long term temporal orientation in the institutional transition context. Building on the perspective of executive job demands, we argue that CEOs’ knowledge gained through their international experience eases their job demands of initiating strategic adaptations during institutional transitions. As a result, CEOs with international experience tend to feel less job stress, and are more likely to embrace a long term temporal orientation in decision making. Further, we contend that the impact of international experience on a firm’s temporal orientation is even stronger when the speed of pro-market reform is faster and when a firm’s financial slack is in place. However, such an impact becomes weaker in the context of state-owned enterprises. We construct a matching pair of sample, using Chinese publicly listed firms hiring CEOs with and without international experience during the period of 2002-2013. The results provide evidence for our theoretical framework.

Speaker Bio：

Gary Lipeng Ge is currently a Ph.D. student from the Department of Management, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). Gary has two research interests. First, he intends to understand whether and when organizational experience is detrimental to organizational performance in transitional economies. Second, he intends to examine firms’ temporal orientation in transitional economies. His dissertation entitled “When does experience hurt a firm’s innovation performance? Exploring the conditions for superstitious learning and negative transfer in a transitional economy” intends to understand the performance implications of firms’ R&D efforts in a transitional economy. Gary holds a bachelor degree from Nanjing University and a master degree from Renmin University of China.