Graduation Semester and Year

2023

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Accounting

Department

Accounting

First Advisor

Jennifer L.C. Ho

Abstract

In my dissertation, I study whether the top management team (TMT) between-member and within-member functional diversities affect firm performance. Between-member functional diversity, known as Dominant Functional Diversity (DFD), refers to the heterogeneity of functional experts on a TMT, and within-member functional diversity, known as Intrapersonal Functional Diversity (IFD), refers to the aggregate functional breadth of TMT members. My analysis indicates that IFD is positively and significantly associated with firm performance. The relationship between DFD and firm performance is also positive but not statistically significant. In the second analysis, I perform a mediation analysis to explore plausible mechanisms through which TMT IFD affects firm performance. I identify managerial ability, firm efficiency, and investment efficiency as potential mediators. Using the bootstrapping methodology, the results support the mediating role of managerial ability in the positive association between IFD and firm performance; however, I cannot find the evidence that firm efficiency or investment efficiency mediates the relation between IFD and firm performance. Finally, I perform a moderating analysis to examine whether the relation between functional diversity and firm performance is moderated by the financial distress, defined as the firm-years with the annual abnormal returns in the bottom 5% of the sample. The results fail to show that the relation between IFD/DFD and firm performance is moderated by the financial distress.

Keywords

Top management teams, Functional diversity

Disciplines

Accounting | Business

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

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