CEO Political Research Articles

CEO Political Connection, Shareholding and Financial Distress of Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria

Purpose: Prior studies conducted to investigate the issues of CEO political connection and shareholding on financial distress remain inconclusive. It is based on the above, that this study is set out to examine the effect of CEO political connection and shareholding on the financial distress of DMBs. Methodology/approach: This study adopted an ex post facto research design based on the nature and the problem of the research. The study utilized annual financial data from quoted DMBs from 2012 to 2021. The data were subjected to diagnostic tests and the Hausman test selected the use of REM over the FEM for testing the hypotheses. Results/findings: The main results show that CEOP (?=0.275582; p=0.7029) had a positive non-significant effect on financial distress; CEOS (?=-0.201171; p=0.0039) had a negative significant effect on financial distress. Limitations: The study does not include other control variables such as firm size and firm leverage which can also affect financial distress. Contribution: This research contributes first, from the focus on developing country settings is important from a theoretical and empirical standpoint because the findings help us comprehend how political connection and shareholding status of CEOs determine the distress score of the DMBs in the absence of a supportive corporate and legal framework. Novelty: This study from the context of a developing nation with weak institutional governance, examines how CEO political connection and shareholding explain the financial distress score of the DMBs which prior studies have weakly examined.

The Association Between CEO Political Ideology and Corporate Culture

The Association Between CEO Political Ideology and Corporate Culture

Who is More Concerned? CEO Political Ideology and Firm’s Perceived Exposure to Climate Change

Who is More Concerned? CEO Political Ideology and Firm’s Perceived Exposure to Climate Change

CEO Political Ideology and Woke CEO Activism: The Role of Board Engagedness

CEO Political Ideology and Woke CEO Activism: The Role of Board Engagedness

CEO Political Ideology and Firm-Level Outcomes: A Systematic Literature Review and Research Agenda

CEO Political Ideology and Firm-Level Outcomes: A Systematic Literature Review and Research Agenda

Regulatory distance and corporate environmental performance: From the perspective of rent-seeking distance

This paper investigates the impact of regulatory distance on corporate environmental performance using data from Chinese A-share listed companies. The results demonstrate that staying away from regulatory agencies significantly improves corporate environmental performance. The potential impact mechanism is that the increase in regulatory distance significantly suppresses rent-seeking activities. The above impacts are particularly pronounced in companies with weak CEO political and financial connections, state-owned enterprises, and firms in regions with low levels of marketization, owing to the fact that these company characteristics influence firms' ability or inclination to participate in rent-seeking. Further evidence indicates that the effect of regulatory distance on environmental performance will be significantly enhanced by strengthening media regulation and anti-corruption efforts.

CEO Political Contribution and Accounting Conservatism

This study investigates whether CEO political contribution, as a measure of CEO political ideology, is associated with a firm’s financial reporting policies in accounting conservatism. Using a sample of federal-level political contributions by CEOs in S&P 500 firms, we find that firms with Republican-leaning CEOs, who tend to have conservative ideology, are associated with a higher degree of accounting conservatism than firms with Democratic-leaning CEOs. We further show that changes in political ideology around CEO turnovers are associated with changes in the firm’s accounting conservatism policies. Our results are robust to a battery of robustness tests. Taken together, our findings are consistent with the assertion of upper echelons theory and suggest that managers with political preference have discretion to translate their personal risk attitude into corporate financial reporting decisions.

CEO Political Ideology and Voluntary Forward-Looking Disclosure

Abstract This study investigates whether the management earnings forecasts of Republican and Democratic CEOs differ due to systematic differences in their information disclosure preferences. We find that Republican CEOs prefer a less asymmetric information environment than Democrat CEOs, and thus make more frequent, timelier, and more accurate disclosures than Democrat CEOs. Results using the propensity score matched sample and difference-in-differences analysis show that our results are unlikely to be driven by potential endogeneity. Our results are robust to controlling for various CEO characteristics and are stronger for firms with higher levels of institutional ownership and litigation risk.

A Moral Foundations Perspective on CEO Political Ideology and Moral Behavior

A Moral Foundations Perspective on CEO Political Ideology and Moral Behavior

The Power of Belief: CEO Political Belief and Corporate Violations

Political beliefs shape individuals' perceptions and ideas and profoundly influence their decision-making behaviour. Using this as a starting point, this paper examines the impact of the CEO's political beliefs on corporate violations. The study found that the political beliefs of party CEOs, which are strongly influenced by the ideology of "working for the people, obeying the law and being clean", effectively discourage corporate misconduct, and that this discouragement is influenced by the CEO's past and current environment. The CEO's past experience of living in a revolutionary old region and the external red cultural environment of the company he is currently working in have a strengthening effect on his political beliefs, further enhancing the inhibiting effect of party members' CEO political beliefs on corporate irregularities. This paper incorporates the political beliefs of executives into the framework of corporate non-compliance research, revealing the important role of enhancing the ideological capabilities of party members in curbing corporate non-compliance, which not only broadens the thinking of behavioral governance of listed companies, but also provides a basis for strengthening the cultivation of political beliefs of party members and bringing into play the pioneering role of party members in economic development.

CEO Political Leanings and Store-Level Economic Activity during the COVID-19 Crisis: Effects on Shareholder Value and Public Health.

ABSTRACTMaintaining economic output during the COVID‐19 pandemic results in benefits for firm shareholders but comes at a potential cost to public health. Using store‐level data, we examine how a CEO's political leaning impacts this trade‐off. We document that firms with a Republican‐leaning CEO experience a relative increase in store visits compared to firms with a Democratic‐leaning CEO. The increase in store visits is associated with higher sales and positive abnormal stock returns. However, we also document higher COVID‐19 transmission rates and more employee safety complaints in communities where establishments with higher store traffic are managed by a Republican‐leaning CEO.

Family Firm CEO Succession and Political Corporate Social Responsibility Involvement

Family Firm CEO Succession and Political Corporate Social Responsibility Involvement

CEO Political Ideology: Revisiting its Responsibility Implications

As an integral component of their value system, CEOs’ political ideology—their stance along the liberal–conservative continuum—has come to be regarded a major determinant for (ir)responsible behavior. Yet, prior work remains inconclusive on whether a more liberal or a more conservative ideological leaning induces CEOs to engage in more or less (ir)responsible behavior. Applying an upper echelons perspective to assess the effect of CEO political ideology on a highly controversial corporate practice, earnings management, we argue that what distinguishes the (ir)responsibility of liberal versus conservative-leaning CEOs may at times rather be its configuration than its degree and depend on the context in which managerial action occurs. Analyzing a panel dataset of 872 S&P 1500 CEOs, we find considerable support for our arguments that liberal-leaning CEOs particularly prefer to inflate reported earnings in line with their preference for current achievement. Conservative-leaning CEOs likewise engage in earnings management, yet particularly tend to deflate reported earnings in line with their preference for inhibition to forestall potential future ambiguity. We show how this ideological inclination to manage earnings varies along contextual characteristics inducing variance in CEOs’ short-term versus long-term orientation and thus offer a comprehensive contribution to our understanding of the irresponsibility of liberal and conservative-leaning CEOs.

How Do the CEO Political Leanings Affect REIT Business Decisions?

Business decisions made by the real estate industry have a profound effect on the well-being of people who live, work, or shop in these buildings. While these decisions may be informed by evidence, the available evidence is often incomplete or imperfect. Therefore, the personal opinions or judgments of senior executives can have an effect. In this paper, we study these effects in two parts: risk-taking and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) activities. Since a person’s political learning is a relatively stable measure, and is associated with preferences for risk and ESG activities, we examine how the political leanings of the CEOs are related to these effects. Using the data from 2003 to 2016, we find that real estate investment trusts with Democratic-leaning CEOs tend to take more risks, as evidenced by higher levels of leverage and more risk in stock prices. We further find that Democratic-leaning CEOs are more broadly engaged in environmentally oriented ESG activities.

CEO Political Activity and CSR: The Impact of the Breadth and Depth of CEO Political Engagement

There are two typical nonmarket strategies firms most engage in: corporate political activity (CPA) and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Despite a growing interest in CPA and CSR, the strategic relationship between these two nonmarket strategies is still very unclear. In particular, we know very little about the relationship between a CEO’s political activity and their firm’s CSR practices. This is surprising, as the CEO is one of the most influential people in an organization who makes critical strategic decisions. Unfortunately, CEO political activity has largely been ignored by current scholarship. To demystify this relationship between CEO political activity and their firm’s CSR practices, we examine how and when CEO political activity influences their firm’s CSR practices. We test this relationship through CEO political donations (e.g., lobbying), and find that a CEO’s political activity (CPA) attenuates a firm’s CSR practices; and this negative association is attenuated by the breadth of a CEO’s political activity.

Game on: CEO Political Ideology and the Numbers Game

It is commonly known that CEOs manage corporate earnings and thus expose their firm, its shareholders, and stakeholders to potential harm for their personal benefit. To better understand the drivers of such unethical behavior, we take an upper echelons perspective and consider CEOs’ political ideology, i.e., their stance on the liberal–conservative continuum, as a fundamental determinant of personal preference that becomes reflected in firms’ earnings management. Analyzing a panel dataset of 872 S&P 1500 CEOs, we find considerable support for our arguments that more liberal CEOs prefer to improve (and more conservative CEOs to diminish) reported earnings and show how this inclination varies along a set of contextual characteristics demarcating the diverse preferences as CEOs’ dedication to the firm and its performance endures, increases, and escalates.

CEO Capability and CEO Arrogance

This study aims to see the effect of the CEO Capabilities and CEO Arrogance to fraudulent financial statements indication. The study used a sample of all manufacturing companies from 2017 to 2019. In accordance with the sample selection, there are 162 manufacturing companies that meet the sample criteria. In this study using multiple linear regression test. This study uses secondary data for the 2017-2019 annual report.
 Based on the results that have been tested, CEO capability as a respected party (CEO Age), CEO capability as the person who knows the most about the company (CEO Tenure) and CEO arrogance as a person who has political connections (CEO Political Connection) have an influence on the indication of fraudulent financial statements. Furthermore, the hypothesis of CEO Capability in Accounting/finance knowledge (CEO Education), CEO arrogance in the form of narcissism (CEO PIC) and CEO arrogance as company founder (Founder CEO) have no influence on indications of fraudulent financial statements.

Pumping the Brakes: Examining the Impact of CEO Political Ideology Divergence on Firm Responses

Research on CEO political ideology has demonstrated the construct’s impact on many firm outcomes. Yet, political ideology does not exist in a vacuum; beyond representing a CEO’s values, political i...

Between Scylla and Charybdis: CEO Political Ideology, Dividends and Downsizing During the Pandemic

Between Scylla and Charybdis: CEO Political Ideology, Dividends and Downsizing During the Pandemic

CEO Political Engagement and Personal SEC Prosecution

CEO Political Engagement and Personal SEC Prosecution