DEI at the Top? A Corporate Governance View on the Composition and Characteristics of Firm Leaders

Abstract

Given the recent rise in conversations on social issues such as diversity, equity, and inclusion, in this symposium we first seek to focus on questions that ask how internal and external governance mechanisms can affect the composition (e.g., in terms of gender, race/ethnicity) of top management teams and boards – that is, who gets appointed to the leadership. In addition, echoing prior calls that much more needs to be done to understand the causes rather than the consequences of managerial characteristics if we seek to further our insights into how such characteristics eventually become manifested in firm outcomes, we also intend to have a discussion on how corporate governance mechanisms can shape the often-studied individual attributes (e.g., values, cognitions, even personalities) of top executives.