CEO Human and Social Capital and Corporate Divestitures: An Investigation of Endowment Effects

Shih-Chi Chiu, Seemantini Madhukar Pathak, Robert E. Hoskisson, Richard A Johnson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Our paper intends to contribute to the restructuring literature by examining the underexplored psychological impact (i.e., the endowment effect) in CEOs' decision making during corporate divestiture. We propose that the psychological bias associated with the endowment effect will lead to lower levels of divestiture intensity. Specifically, we argue that CEO position tenure and industry tenure are negatively associated with a firm's divestiture intensity; whereas, CEO board memberships lead to more intense restructuring. Our theoretical model further examines two external moderators, i.e., the presence of financial advisors and environmental munificence, in helping CEOs mitigate (or exacerbate) managerial endowment effect at the time of restructuring. Our data based on 230 restructuring programs executed in U.S. between 1986 and 2009 provided strong support for our theoretical model associated with the endowment effect in explaining the sources of variations in firms' divestment decisions during restructuring.
Original languageAmerican English
JournalAcademy of Management Proceedings
Volume2014
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2014
Externally publishedYes

Disciplines

  • Business
  • Industrial Organization

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