Middle Manager Cognition and Corporate Climate Action

Where: Zoom Platform
Time: 2 p.m.

Please contact school.socialsciences [at] unitn.it

for the link to the Zoom event.

Speaker

• Dror Etzion, McGill University

Abstract

Current research on cognition and strategy fails to account for the effect of middle manager cognition on firm performance despite the important role they play in strategy formulation and implementation. We hypothesize that when faced with ambiguous sustainability issues such as climate change, middle manager integrative complexity, or the ability to differentiate and conceptually integrate different viewpoints, leads to better socio-environmental performance. We empirically test this claim by applying a computer-aided text analysis to free-form textual responses in the Carbon Disclosure Project to measure middle manager integrative complexity. Our results support the argument that middle managers characterized by integrative complexity improve performance. The findings contribute to existing scholarship at the intersection of cognition and corporate strategy by showing that middle manager cognition is an important yet overlooked factor in climate action.

Paper available upon request to school.socialsciences [at] unitn.it