Title
Unobservable effort, objective consistency and the efficiencies of the principal and the top management team
Abstract
Top management team (TMT) plays a leading role in making strategic decisions and business success. On account of unobservable and immeasurable characteristics of the TMT's effort, prior researches are of limited use in identifying its impact on the performances of the principal and TMT. This paper formulates novel models to overcome the limitations by incorporating DEA and bi-level programming into the principal-agent framework. We begin with the basic models from the perspective of the principal and the TMT respectively, and propose integrated and bi-level models to illustrate the cooperative and leader-follower collaboration between the two parties. We then develop an effort-based DEA model in which the effort of the TMT is viewed as a variable. By comparing optimal value of the variable with zero, we can identify whether the effort level is desired by the principal. A higher value larger (lower) than zero implies that the members of TMT exert higher (lower) effort. Further, we identify objective consistence between the two parties by incorporating the organisational outcomes into the outputs of the TMT. A case study of 16 China listed real estate companies shows that the TMT's effort has a significant influence on the efficiencies of the principal and the TMT. In addition, the TMT has an initiative incentive to adjust the effort level to adapt various situations of objective consistence and inconsistence.
Year
DOI
Venue
2019
10.1080/01605682.2018.1487814
JOURNAL OF THE OPERATIONAL RESEARCH SOCIETY
Keywords
Field
DocType
Top management team,efficiency,data envelopment analysis (DEA),unobservable effort,objective consistence
Computer science,Top management,Unobservable,Management science,Process management
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
70.0
6.0
0160-5682
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
0
0.34
7
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Zhao Lin-lin1146.10
Yong Zha2363.06
Rui Hou3116.45
Liang Liang4134492.90