Abstract
This study investigates how effectively a forced CEO turnover mitigates a firm's distress risk amplified by a bad reputation for its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices. We find that a firm's CEO dismissal decision significantly reduces the level of its distress risk—measured by Altman's Z-Score—subsequent to negative media coverage of the firm's ESG practices. This suggests that the forced CEO turnover may be taken as an ex-post damage instrument. Additional results show that the mitigation effect of CEO dismissal is stronger in firms under greater market scrutiny conditioned on various mechanisms: market competition, sin stock industry, and analyst coverage.
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