CEO Behavior and Firm Performance

Oriana  Bandiera; Stephen  Hansen; Andrea  Prat; Raffaella  Sadun

Article | Journal of Political Economy | April 2020

CEO Behavior and Firm Performance

by Oriana Bandiera, Stephen Hansen, Andrea Prat and Raffaella Sadun

Abstract

We measure the behavior of 1,114 CEOs in six countries parsing granular CEO diary data through an unsupervised machine learning algorithm. The algorithm uncovers two distinct behavioral types: "leaders" and "managers." Leaders focus on multi-function, high-level meetings, while managers focus on one-to-one meetings with core functions. Firms with leader CEOs are on average more productive, and this difference arises only after the CEO is hired. The data is consistent with horizontal differentiation of CEO behavioral types and firm-CEO matching frictions. We estimate that 17% of sample CEOs are mismatched and that mismatches are associated with significant productivity losses.

Keywords: CEOs; Management; Behavior; Organizations; Performance; Analysis;

Format: Print

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Citation:

Bandiera, Oriana, Stephen Hansen, Andrea Prat, and Raffaella Sadun. "CEO Behavior and Firm Performance." Journal of Political Economy 128, no. 4 (April 2020): 1325–1369.

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CEO Behavior and Firm Performance

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