Managerial overconfidence and internal control weaknesses : evidence from Iranian firms

Purpose: The characteristic of managers’ personality is a key factor in their decision-making. One of the most important personality characteristic of managers is overconfidence. Overconfident managers have false trust about their abilities and have a positive view of the firm’s future performance. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the association between managerial overconfidence and internal control weaknesses (ICW) of the firms listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). Design/methodology/approach: Sample includes the 480 firm-year observations from companies listed on the TSE during the years 2013–2017, and the hypothesis is tested using multivariate regression model based on panel data analysis. Findings: The authors found that managerial overconfidence increases the firms’ ICW. The findings are robust to alternative measure of managerial overconfidence, individual analysis of the research hypothesis for each year and endogeneity concern. Moreover, additional analysis reveals that the positive relationship between managerial overconfidence and ICW is less pronounced in larger firms. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to analyze the association between managerial overconfidence and ICW in emerging capital markets and, therefore, can contribute to extend the current literature on managerial overconfidence and ICW in developing countries, especially Iran’s emerging capital market.