Abstract
Research on the Chief Financial Officer's (CFO) role has increased in the last few years, but has so far mainly focused on large firms and neglected the CFO's role in smaller firms. Therefore, in this paper, we study whether the CFO's role in medium-sized firms differs from the CFO's role in large firms. Using a sample of 378 German firms, we investigate the effect of firm size on CFO characteristics, CFO responsibilities and the CFO's participation in strategic planning. Our findings show that CFOs in medium-sized firms have less often obtained a university degree and less often take responsibility for various finance and accounting functions compared to large firms. We do not find a differing level of CFO participation in strategic planning in dependence of firm size, but we find that after the CEO, the CFO obtains a "number two" position in strategic planning regardless of firm size.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 83-92 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Journal of International Business and Economics |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Publication status | Published - 2013 |
Fields of science
- 211903 Science of management
- 502033 Accounting
- 502044 Business management
- 502052 Business administration
- 502 Economics
- 502006 Controlling
JKU Focus areas
- Social and Economic Sciences (in general)