Abstract
This study examines whether Chief Executive Officer (CEO) temporal focus—the extent to which CEOs devote their attention to the past, present, and future—is related to firms' identification and interpretation of grand challenges. Using the exemplary grand challenge of water scarcity, we adapt mechanisms of the temporal focus literature to the particularities of grand challenges and propose that CEO temporal focus is related to whether firms identify water scarcity as an issue and whether they interpret the identified issue as an opportunity. In our empirical analysis of 727 firm-year observations for the years 2002–2012, we find no support for the hypothesis that firms’ identification of water scarcity is related to CEO temporal focus. However, we show that having a CEO high in future focus is positively, and a CEO high in past or high in present focus is negatively related to interpreting water scarcity as an opportunity.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 137041 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Journal of Cleaner Production |
| Volume | 406 |
| Early online date | 5-Apr-2023 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 20-Jun-2023 |
Keywords
- Temporal focus
- Grand challenges
- Water scarcity
- Chief executive officer