EXPLORING ALTERNATIVE AVENUES TO INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE AND FIRM ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIAL GOVERNANCE PERFORMANCE AND THE MODERATING EFFECT OF FIRM SIZE

Doctoral Candidate Name: Zez C. Zawolo
Program: Business Administration: DBA
Defense Date and Time: March 18, 2024 – 4:00 PM
Defense Location: zoom https://charlotte-edu.zoom.us/j/95581010984?pwd=VG1OSnh5OFdqMlhzdTVrK2ZmSFp0Zz09
Committee chair’s Name: Dr. Gregory W. Martin
Committee Members: Dr. Paul Tanyi, Dr. Curtis Wesley, Dr. Torsten Pieper
Abstract:

Many research studies have explored the impact of international experience on an organization’s strategic decisions and overall performance. However, these studies tend only to examine the connection between a CEO’s international experience, such as traveling abroad for work or study during their adult life, and their organization’s Environmental, Social, and Governance Performance (ESGP). To expand on this, I examined other methods of gaining international experience, such as personal exposure from living overseas and indirect exposure from foreign-born parents and grandparents. Through the imprinting and upper-echelon theories, I identified CEOs born and raised overseas as “first-generation immigrant CEOs” and CEOs born and raised in the United States by at least one immigrant parent or grandparent as “second and third-generation immigrant CEOs.” I then studied the relationship between first-generation immigrant CEOs, second and third-generation immigrant CEOs, and firm Environmental, Social, and Governance performance (ESGP) while also considering the moderating effect of firm size. To conduct this research, I obtained a list of companies from the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 index for FY 2022 (N=444) and data from CSRHub and COMPUSTAT. Although the findings did not support the direct and moderating relationships studied, they provide recommendations for improvement and future research directions.