Shifting perspectives: How scrutiny shapes the relationship between CEO gender and acquisition activity

Daniel L. Gamache, Cynthia E. Devers, Felice B. Klein and Timothy Hannigan

Strategic Management Journal, 2023, vol. 44, issue 12, 3012-3041

Abstract: Research Summary Several upper echelons studies have found that firms led by female executives are less likely to engage in risky endeavors than those led by male top executives. We argue that conceptualizing female CEOs as universally conservative decision‐makers may paint too simplistic a picture and that the impact of CEO gender on strategic decision‐making may vary significantly depending on the given situation CEOs are experiencing. We integrate executive job demands and gender research to propose that scrutiny will exhibit differential effects on female and male CEOs' acquisition activity. We show that in high‐scrutiny contexts, the difference between male and female CEO acquisition activity disappears. In contrast, in low‐scrutiny contexts, the difference between male and female CEOs' acquisition activity is exaggerated. Managerial Summary Substantial research has shown that female executives acquire at a lower rate than male executives. We argue that viewing female CEOs as universally conservative decision‐makers may paint too simplistic a picture and that the impact of CEO gender on strategic decision‐making may vary significantly depending on the given situation CEOs are experiencing. In particular, we argue and find that in high‐scrutiny contexts, the difference between male and female CEO acquisition activity disappears. This research suggests that managers should consider the impact of environmental context—especially the role of scrutiny—when considering the risk propensity of female leaders.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3529

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:stratm:v:44:y:2023:i:12:p:3012-3041

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0143-2095

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Strategic Management Journal from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().