What are the consequences of a manager accepting responsibility versus blaming other firm employees for the firm’s poor performance? And how do investors react to this? Serena Loftus, Assistant Professor at Tulane University, discussed these questions with members of the WHU community during a WHU Research Seminar on June 12. In her paper entitled “The impact of pay ratio disclosures on investors’ reactions to CEOs’ public attributions for poor performance”, Serena Loftus and her co-authors investigate how the ratio of annual CEO compensation to median employee compensation influences the investors’ reaction to a CEO’s choice of internal attribution.
Professor Serena Loftus joined Freeman School of Business in 2015, after obtaining her Ph.D. degree from the University of Washington. Her current research focuses on how psychological processes shape reactions to internal and external accounting information. Professor Loftus specializes in the role of qualitative accounting information in performance management systems and financial disclosures.