CEO Behavior and Firm Performance
Oriana Bandiera, LSE; Stephen Hansen, Oxford; Andrea Prat, Columbia; Raffaella Sadun, Harvard
Abstract
We measure the behavior of 1,114 CEOs in six countries parsing granular CEO diary data through an unsupervised machine learning algorithm. The algorithm uncovers two distinct behavioral types: “leaders” and “managers”. Leaders focus on multi-function, high-level meetings, while managers focus on one-to-one meetings with core functions. Firms with leader CEOs are on average more productive, and this di↵erence arises only after the CEO is hired. The data is consistent with horizontal di↵erentiation of CEO behavioral types, and firm-CEO matching frictions. We estimate that 17% of sample CEOs are mismatched, and that mismatches are associated with significant productivity losses.