Date of Award
2023
Document Type
Dissertation
Publication Status
Version of Record
Submission Date
October 2026
Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]
Thevenot, Maya
Abstract
There has been a strong push for workplace diversity in the United States (U.S.) in recent years. Work teams consisting of employees with diverse backgrounds can augment firms’ competitive advantage. This view is consistent with the cognitive diversity hypothesis, which depicts multiple perspectives generated by cognitive differences among organizational members resulting in creative problem-solving. In this study, I investigate the role of cognitive diversity, measured by differences in a set of seven cultural traits between the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), in shaping firm financial reporting quality. Relying on the upper-echelon theory that executive characteristics affect firm outcomes and the cognitive diversity hypothesis that diversity reduces groupthink, sparks innovation, increases employee retention rate, and builds a positive firm culture, I expect to find a positive relationship between cognitive diversity and financial reporting quality. In determining firm performance and outcomes, differences in executive demographic characteristics such as age, tenure, gender, and race may have an impact on how executive cognitive perceptions, values, and information sets, shape their decisions and outcomes. Therefore, I then examine the effect of executive demographic diversity on the link between executive cognitive diversity and financial reporting quality. Diversity has received a lot of attention over the last decades, but it is unclear ex ante how different types of diversity interact with each other in shaping firm outcomes. Therefore, I examine but do not hypothesize the direction of the effect of executive demographic diversity on the link between executive cognitive diversity and financial reporting quality.
Extent
151 p.
Recommended Citation
Li, Tianpei, "THE ROLE OF EXECUTIVE COGNITIVE DIVERSITY ON FINANCIAL REPORTING QUALITY" (2023). Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present. 1322.
https://digitalcommons.fau.edu/etd_general/1322
Identifier
FA00014140
Comments
Includes bibliography.|Dissertation (PhD)--Florida Atlantic University, 2023.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Includes bibliography.