CEO early-life disaster experience and corporate social performance

Abstract

Research Summary: Despite an extensive upper echelons literature on how CEOs' prior experiences influence firm behavior, we know little about the influence of traumatic experiences early in CEOs' lives. Drawing on post-traumatic growth theory, we describe how traumatic experiences early in CEOs' lives influence corporate social performance. Our theory points to the asymmetric impact of CEO early-life trauma on responsible and irresponsible corporate social performance and to two boundary conditions: CEO age at the time of the traumatic event and the severity of the event. We develop and test our arguments in the context of large-scale disasters experienced early in the CEO's life. Our findin..