Prior research reports that financial performance of firms that hire interim CEO successors is worse following interim CEO appointments than those that hire permanent successors. We find that this underperformance occurs only following voluntary turnover interim appointments, which represent a...

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate an interesting yet mostly ignored distinction within external CEO successions: outside successors who have previous CEO experience and those who do not. It examines stock market reaction, compensation and firm performance prior and post‐succession....

We find that the most common board size for US publicly-traded firms ranges from eight to eleven directors. Over time, small boards (seven or fewer directors), tend to increase their size, but large boards (12 or more directors), tend to shrink their size. This result suggests a significant mean...

To improve our understanding of the succession process we utilize a sample of 832 successions to examine firm and predecessor characteristics that influence the board's choice of a successor's functional and educational background. We find that outgoing CEO and firm characteristics influence the...