Date of Award
2022-08-01
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Business Administration
Advisor(s)
Feixue Xie
Abstract
The dissertation consists of two essays. The first essay investigates the relationship between CEO power and investment efficiency. I find that powerful CEOs reduce investment efficiency, and this investment inefficiency is mainly driven by overinvestment. The negative effect of CEO power on investment efficiency is more pronounced when information asymmetry, agency problems, and product market competition are strong. This negative effect is mitigated when operation complexity is high and when internal and external governance is strong. However, if the majority of the independent directors are co-opted, the positive impact of internal governance diminishes. I further find that inefficiency and overinvestment increase with CEO tenure, level of CEO power, and financial constraints. In addition, the inefficiency is more pronounced when the powerful CEOs are hired from outside. In the second essay, I document that subordinate executives' confidence and ability to monitor CEOs' actions increase corporate risk-taking. I also find that firms tend to increase their investments in capital expenditures, R&D, intangible assets, and advertising expenses to increase firm risk. These firms, however, reduce net leverage, hold more cash and increase equity issuance probably to finance the increased investments. Overall, my evidence shows that approximately 36% of return on assets volatility and 24% of cash flow volatility are channeled through these investment and financing decisions. I further show that the effectiveness of subordinate executives' confidence and ability is more pronounced in competitive and complex business environments where the subordinate executivesâ?? effort is more important. However, the presence of highly experienced but older executives and more powerful, and overconfident CEOs undermines this positive effect.
Language
en
Provenance
Received from ProQuest
Copyright Date
2022-08
File Size
126 p.
File Format
application/pdf
Rights Holder
Md Raihan Uddin Chowdhury
Recommended Citation
Chowdhury, Md Raihan Uddin, "Ceo Power, Subordinate Executives' Confidence And Ability, And Corporate Decisions" (2022). Open Access Theses & Dissertations. 3595.
https://scholarworks.utep.edu/open_etd/3595