New CEOs Pursue Their Own Self-Interests by Sacrificing Stakeholder Value

Short-term performance increases that are sometimes observed after CEO successions may be evidence of self-interested behavior. New CEOs may cut allocations to long-term investment areas such as research and development (R&D), capital equipment and pension funds in an effort to drive up short-te...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Harrison, Jeffrey S. (Author) ; Fiet, James O. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V 1999
In: Journal of business ethics
Year: 1999, Volume: 19, Issue: 3, Pages: 301-308
Further subjects:B Pension funding
B research and development
B Chief Executive Officer
B self-interested behavior
B Stakeholders
B Executive succession
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Summary:Short-term performance increases that are sometimes observed after CEO successions may be evidence of self-interested behavior. New CEOs may cut allocations to long-term investment areas such as research and development (R&D), capital equipment and pension funds in an effort to drive up short-term profits and secure their positions. However, such actions have unfavorable consequences for some stakeholders. This study provides evidence that both R&D and pension funding are reduced subsequent to a succession, even after accounting for industry trends. The expected short-term profitability increases are also observed., A major implication of these results is that boards of directors and other interested parties should carefully monitor the actions of new CEOs with regard to their treatment of R&D and pension funding if they would like to prevent such actions from occurring. This study also highlights the need to investigate other potential self-interested behaviors of new CEOs.
ISSN:1573-0697
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1023/A:1005961518518