CEO Succession Roulette
Publication Date
11-2-2016
Abstract
This paper studies the effects of succession planning on management turnover using hand-collected data on succession planning practices at U.S. public firms. Our tests highlight three dimensions in which succession planning impacts CEO turnover. Firms with succession plans (i) experience lower uncertainty around successions and faster learning about CEO ability, (ii) rely primarily on firm-specific information in CEO dismissals, and (iii) use more sophisticated performance metrics in evaluating their executives. Our findings are robust to the effects of firm and industry characteristics, and indicate that succession planning improves the efficiency and lowers the cost of management transitions.
Document Type
Article
Keywords
CEO turnover, succession planning, CEO labor market, CEO ability, performance evaluation
Disciplines
Finance
DOI
10.2139/ssrn.2862653
Source
SMU Cox: Finance (Topic)
Language
English
