Four ways to choose a CEO: Crown heir,horse race,coup d'Etat,and comprehensive search

Most attempts to understand CEO succession fail to adequately differentiate the various ways by which CEOs are chosen. This article presents a conceptual framework that identifies four kinds of CEO succession processes, distinguished according to two key factors: political dynamics (who rules?) and the candidate search (are preferences known in advance?). Our main point is that the response of organizational stakeholders to CEO successions—(a) whether the process is perceived as fair, (b) whether the chosen successor is seen as good for an organization's future, and (c) the extent of disruption attending the leadership change—reflects how the politics and the search are managed. How internal and external stakeholders respond to a CEO succession can affect a new CEO's capacity for exercising effective leadership. Examples of each type (Apple, General Motors, Kodak, and Procter & Gamble) are offered and implications are drawn for researchers and for human resource executives. © 1995 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

In Pursuit of Greatness: CEO Narcissism,Entrepreneurial Orientation,and Firm Performance Variance

Building upon the perspective that narcissism is a leadership trait with both ‘bright’ and ‘dark’ sides, the present study examines the question of whether companies led by narcissistic CEOs exhibit higher levels of entrepreneurial orientation (EO). Moreover, this research examines whether EO partially explains why narcissistic CEO‐led firms experience greater variability in firm performance. Using survey data collected from 173 CEOs, and an archival measure of firm performance variance, we find support for our model. These findings offer an improved understanding of how CEO narcissism influences performance variance, and why the firms they lead may even, at times, be viewed as on a path to success. Study implications are discussed.     

Does organization capital matter? An analysis of the performance implications of CEO power

Chief executive officer (CEO) power reflects the ability of the CEO to influence the firm's decision-making. Whether the CEO of the firm could manage the firm’s investment assets to support maximizing the efficiency of resource allocation is an important issue. As previous studies found, organization capital is a key intangible asset that improves the firm’s production efficiency and affects long-term performance. This study explores how CEO power affects organization capital investments and how it further affects the efficiency of firm resource allocation. We use the following three variables to measure CEO power: CEO founder, CEO-only insider and CEO duality. Our results indicate that the level of CEO power can influence a firm’s value by controlling the organization capital. When the firm’s CEO is also the founder, the CEO will attempt to increase investments in organization capital to create growth opportunities for the firm, which will therefore increase the firm's value. Specifically, when the company is in financial distress, the powerful CEO's increasing in organizational capital investment will expose the company to greater risk of loss of intangible assets. This result may further increase the company's price volatility.     

CEO retention,firm performance and corporate governance

This paper seeks to determine if CEO turnover is a function of firm performance, and therefore attempts to gauge the extent to which CEO interests are aligned with those of stockholders. The methodology in this paper focuses primarily on estimating the relationship between the probability of CEO exit and indices of firm performance and corporate governance structure. A major finding of the paper is that the accountability of CEOs to stockholders is significantly limited by CEO power, and CEO turnover is influenced more by internal governance structure than by firm profit or sales performance.     

CEO duality,information costs,and firm performance

This study investigates the effects of CEO duality on firm performance and the moderating effect of information costs on the relationship between CEO duality and firm performance in Taiwan. By analyzing listed companies during the period from 2000 to 2012, our empirical results show that a lack of evidence for the links between leadership style and firm performance; however, this relationship is associated with information costs estimated by analysts’ earnings forecasts. Specifically, we find that CEO duality has statistically significant negative impacts on firm performance when information costs are high. This result provides evidence for the coexistence of the agency hypothesis and stewardship hypothesis as determined by the extent of the information costs, and it tends to underscore the importance of corporate governance on the relationship between CEO duality and firm performance.     

How CEO narcissism affects earnings management behaviors

This study examined whether chief executive officers’ (CEOs) with narcissistic tendencies are more likely to execute earnings management behavior because of pressure to fulfill earnings thresholds. The results revealed that a CEO who exhibits high narcissism is more likely to be involved in earnings management to compensate for her/his performance. Our findings suggest that CEO narcissism directly influences financial decisions. Considering the earnings thresholds, firms with a more narcissistic CEO experience a regulatory effect on real earnings management behavior. Studies have indicated that CEOs manipulate earnings to satisfy three primary earnings thresholds: prior year’s reported earnings, zero earnings, and analysts’ forecasts. Our empirical results provide further evidence that CEOs engage in earnings management to fulfill positive earnings thresholds and analysts’ forecasts. We infer that CEOs use the abnormal production cost method as an underlying mechanism to increase reported earnings. Our findings help clarify the relationship between CEO personality traits and earnings manipulation to assist investors with decision-making.     

Firm risk and the power of the Chairman and CEO in a civil law country: evidence from Spain

Many authors have examined the effect of various control mechanisms on firm value, but have devoted little attention to the effect of these mechanisms on firm risk. This paper studies the effect of different variables related to the power of the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) on firm risk in Spain. Decisions taken by both the chairman and the CEO are very important in order to attain the shareholders' objectives. Thus, decisions relative to both posts can be considered very relevant from the human resources point of view. There is little previous empirical evidence on this topic, and what there is comes from the US. Most results are consistent with what we call a ‘power perspective’. That is, we observe a positive relation between firm risk and combining in the same person the positions of chairman of the board and CEO. We also find a positive relation between firm risk and the status of both leaders as founding partners, and a negative relation between firm risk and board size.     

The impact of appointment-based CEO connectedness on firms’ performance and profitability

This paper investigates whether the performance variables of newly added intangible capital elements give the appointment relationship a deeper impact on the firms’ performance and profitability. We document that after correcting for endogeneity, when considering intangible capital, Total Q is a better proxy than Tobin’s Q for explaining the effect of appointment-based CEO connectedness on firm performance and profitability. Furthermore, we show that the influence of directors on company performance and profitability is more important than that of executives or managers. We also find that the stronger the appointment relationship, the worse the company’s performance and profitability. We further provide a series of alternative interpretations and robustness test evidence showing that intangible capital is more important for high technology and internet firms than industrial firms. Further, we find that the greater the number of executives appointed by the CEO, the better the firm’s research and development, but the worse the firm’s investment policy.     

Executive Pay Matters: Looking Beyond the CEO to Explore Implications of Pay Disparity on Non‐CEO Executive Turnover and Firm Performance

Using a longitudinal data set covering a span of 10 years, we investigate the impact of vertical and horizontal pay disparity on non‐CEO executive turnover and subsequent firm performance. Hypothesizing differential responses to pay disparity depending on a non‐CEO executive's responsibilities, we first categorize non‐CEO executives based on their job demands and their role in the organization (e.g., oversight, divisional). We then explore how pay disparity influences the relationship between executive category and turnover, and how the level of pay disparity impacts the relationship between turnover and firm performance. We find that executive category significantly impacts the likelihood of turnover, and also influences firm performance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Components of CEO Transformational Leadership and Corporate Social Responsibility*

abstract We use transformational leadership theory to explore the role of CEOs in determining the extent to which their firms engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR). We test this theory using data from 56 US and Canadian firms. CEO intellectual stimulation (but not CEO charismatic leadership) is found to be significantly associated with the propensity of the firm to engage in ‘strategic’ CSR, or those CSR activities that are most likely to be related to the firm's corporate and business‐level strategies. Thus, studies that ignore the role of leadership in CSR may yield imprecise conclusions regarding the antecedents and consequences of these activities. We also critique transformational leadership theory, in terms of its overemphasis on charismatic forms of leadership. This leads to a reconceptualization of transformational leadership, which emphasizes the intellectual stimulation component in the context of CSR.     

Bargaining power in alliance governance negotiations: evidence from the biotechnology industry

Alliance partners negotiate how they will govern their alliance. This study shows bargaining power, not just efficiency considerations, influences the outcome of this negotiation. Whereas previous research on this phenomenon associates bargaining power with firm size, this study employs more nuanced measures of bargaining power applicable to biotechnology firms while controlling both absolute and relative firm size. We find small biotechnology firms with partners that are over five times larger can still have the bargaining power to get their interests met when the two parties have opposing governance interests.     

Expanding the concept of fit in strategic human resource management: An examination of the relationship between human resource practices and charismatic leadership on organizational outcomes

We investigate the relationship between high‐commitment human resources (HCHR) practices and chief executive officer (CEO) charismatic leadership on voluntary employee turnover and relative performance to peers in a sample of 281 small firms. In this study, we expand upon prior conceptualizations of fit within the literature on strategic human resources (HR) to include the fit of HCHR with other aspects of the people management system. Specifically, we hypothesize a variety of relationships that may occur (e.g., positive synergistic, deadly combination, or substitution) and find that when a firm uses a system of HCHR practices and has a charismatic leader, performance is highest and turnover lowest. Conversely, when a firm does not invest in either, performance is lowest and turnover highest. We also found some support for a substitution effect as our data showed that when there is a mismatch between a firm's HR system and the leadership characteristics of the CEO, turnover is higher and performance lower than the high‐investment people management system (high HCHR and high‐charismatic leadership), but turnover is lower and performance higher than the low‐investment (low HCHR and low‐charismatic leadership) people management system.     

Riding off into the Sunset: Organizational Sensegiving,Shareholder Sensemaking,and Reactions to CEO Retirement

We test hypotheses derived from resource dependence and sensemaking/sensegiving theoretical lenses in the context of CEO succession, focusing on an under‐researched yet prevalent type of executive turnover – CEO retirement. Using event study methodology and a sample of CEO retirements from S&P 1500 firms during the 2003–12 period, we find that, all else equal, shareholders’ perceptions of organizations’ capacity to serve their interests are adversely affected when a retirement related change occurs in the leadership structure. Specifically, in line with resource dependence theory, we find that CEO retirement disclosures typically generate negative abnormal returns. Furthermore, in line with the sensemaking perspective, we find that the magnitude of shareholders’ reactions is contingent on the lexical sensegiving cues contained in the organizational narratives that are released to capital markets via executive retirement announcements. Overall, our theory and results point to CEO retirement events as consequential in the eyes of shareholders, challenging an important assumption of extant succession research. Moreover, they suggest that shareholders’ interpretation of these events is influenced by organizational sensegiving, highlighting the important role of organizational communication around succession events.     

Experience Matters? The Impact of Prior CEO Experience on Firm Performance

We sample CEOs of the 2005 S&P 500 corporations to look at the relationship between experience in the CEO position of a different firm and the post‐succession financial performance of the firm that they currently lead. We find that experience in the CEO position is negatively related to firm performance. CEOs who directly move to their current CEO position from the previous one and those with job‐specific experience in the same or related industry or at the helm of a previous company similar in size to the current one are associated with significantly lower post‐succession performance than those without prior CEO experience. The results contribute to the literatures on CEO succession, the performance effect of job‐specific experience, and the transferability of human capital. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Real effects of social trust on firm performance during COVID-19

This study uses a difference-in-differences estimation method to address potential endogeneity between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firm performance using a natural experiment of COVID-19, with a cross-country sample of 80,454 firm-quarter observations across 51 countries. We find that high-CSR firms show better performance, raise more debt, and invest more during COVID-19. The positive effect of CSR on firm performance is more pronounced in countries with better governance and among non- International Financial Reporting Standards adopters. Our findings suggest that when trust in firms and markets falls during an economic crisis, the trust established between a firm and its stakeholders via socially responsible behavior pays off.     

Diversification strategy,CEO management style and firm performance: an application of Heckman’s two-stage method

This paper aims to explore whether CEOs’ management style as agents or as stewards, which depends on their psychological and situational characteristics, moderates the effect of the diversification strategy on firm performance. After applying Heckman’s two-stage method to control econometrically for endogeneity bias in empirical work, results demonstrate that the relationship between diversification and profitability varies significantly depending on the management style of the diversifying CEO.     

CEO自恋对创新绩效的影响研究 ——基于企业异质性的调节作用

从CEO心理特征视角出发,探究了CEO自恋与企业创新绩效之间的关系。以2011—2016年A股135家上市公司的纵向数据为样本,通过广义估计方程模型进行实证检验。研究发现:CEO自恋对企业创新绩效具有显著促进作用。进一步研究发现,CEO自恋对企业创新绩效的影响受到企业异质性的调节作用:相比小规模企业,大规模企业中CEO自恋对创新绩效的促进作用更显著;相比低财务杠杆企业,高财务杠杆企业中CEO自恋对创新绩效的促进作用更显著;相比非国有企业,国有企业中CEO自恋对创新绩效的促进作用更显著。     

Contextual Influences on Executive Selection: Firm Characteristics and CEO Experience

This study examines the relationship between antecedent organizational characteristics and the pre-succession experience of individuals chosen as chief executive officer (CEO) – relationships that have received limited attention in past research. A sample of 214 CEO selection decisions was used to test hypothesized relationships between the firm characteristics of size, performance, growth, advertising intensity, risk and individual attributes pertaining to the experience of selected CEOs. Results indicate the following relationships: pre-succession profitability, size and advertising intensity are associated with the chosen executives' organizational tenure levels; pre-succession firm size and risk are associated with the age of selected CEOs; and, pre-succession profitability and advertising intensity are associated with type of functional background experience. Findings provide new insights into the relative importance of pre-succession experience associated with different organizational contexts in CEO selection decisions.     

Facilitative Leadership and the Challenge of Renewing Local Democracy in Italy

Participatory arrangements have become a popular way of addressing modern challenges of urban governance but in practice face several constraints and can trigger deep tensions. Facilitative leadership can play a crucial role in enabling collaboration among local stakeholders despite plural and often conflictual interests. Surprisingly, this style of leadership has received limited attention within debates linking urban governance and participatory democracy. We summarize the main insights of the literature on facilitative leadership and empirically develop them in the context of participatory urban governance by comparing recent participatory processes in two Italian cities. Whereas in one city facilitative leadership gradually emerged and successfully transformed a deep conflict into consensual proposals, in the other city, participatory planning further exacerbated pre‐existing antagonism, and local democratic culture was only later slowly reinvigorated through bottom‐up initiative. These diverging pathways explain how facilitative leadership is: (1) important for making things happen; (2) best understood as situated practices; (3) an emergent property of the practices and interactions of a number of local actors and (4) a democratic capacity for dealing with continuous challenges. Key to this style of leadership is understanding participatory urban governance as an ongoing democratic process.     

Linguistic cues of chief executive officer personality and its effect on performance

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) personality belongs to the most important constructs for business practice and research, but its measurement remains a major obstacle. Therefore, I propose a language-based approach of freely available, large-scale corporate documents to study linguistic hints regarding CEOs' personality dimensions by applying a validated, closed-based approach developed to a sample of Fortune 500 companies. I compare the results to validated, machine learning-trained open-based results obtained from conference calls of 3000 CEOs of S&P 1500 companies. In order to provide a basis for comparison, I supplement these linguistic personality profiles with a sample of convicted criminal CEOs that provide an archetype of extreme linguistic cases. Finally, after controlling for commonly used content analytical constructs (e.g., entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation) to capture CEOs' cognitive state, I link these cross-sectional linguistic profiles to longitudinal firm-level performance data. The analysis indicates that the linguistic manifestations of CEO personality explain a great share of firm performance in conjunction with observable individual, industry, and firm-level data. While there appear to be complementarities between open-based and closed-based language approaches, the analysis also indicates that the open-based linguistic trait of neuroticism is negatively related to various measures of firm performance. In particular, these measures appear to be more robust against genre effects and language that are unique among CEOs (self-selection effects). Therefore, the approach sheds light on the important role of validation procedures in the realm of computer-aided content analysis (CATA) and the conducive and detrimental effects of CEO personality cues on firm performance. The paper discusses practical implications for stakeholders and shareholders wishing to infer personality cues of key decision-makers from large-scale corporate documents and theoretical implications for the advancement of the upper echelon research.