Published In
University of Oregon Economics Department Working Papers
Document Type
Working Paper
Publication Date
3-1-2003
Subjects
Foreign investments, Chief executive officers, International business enterprises, Corporate governance
Abstract
Anecdotal evidence suggests that new CEOs with foreign backgrounds direct their firms to become more international in their operations. We examine this hypothesis formally using data on U.S. S&P-500 manufacturing firms from1992 through 1997 and biographical information on CEOs’ birth and education locations that allow us to identify changes from U.S.- to foreign-connected CEOs. Robust to a variety of specifications, we find that a U.S. firm’s switch from a U.S. to a foreign CEO leads to substantial increases in the firm’s proportion of its foreign assets and foreign affiliate sales. In fact, our preferred specification indicates that foreign asset and affiliate sales proportions increase 25 and 40%, respectively, for the five years after there is CEO turnover to one with a foreign background. This is in contrast to U.S.-to-U.S. CEO switches in our sample that show no evidence of changes in a firms’ foreign market participation. These large effects contrast with previous literature that finds little evidence for changes in firm performance with CEO turnover.
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/4850
Citation Details
Bruce A. Blonigen & Rossitza B. Wooster, 2003. "CEO Turnover and Foreign Market Participation," University of Oregon Economics Department Working Papers 2003-24, University of Oregon Economics Department, revised 01 Mar 2003.
Description
Copyright 2003 National Bureau of Economic Research. Available at www.nber.org.
* At the time of publication Rossitza B. Wooster was affiliated with the California State University, Sacramento