Purpose – The paper aims to examine whether and under what circumstances social status of chief executives can be associated with corporate financial decisions, in particular via risk aversion or risk loving to the extent of mergers and acquisitions. Design/methodology/approach – The authors...

The collapse of the Irish economy, still ongoing after five years, has its roots firmly in the banking sector. Lax risk management, aided by poor board oversight and behavioral biases among senior executives, is now viewed as one of the primary causes of the over-lending during the ‘Celtic...