Abstract
Gender-Based Experiential Risk Aversion Driving Women Appointed CEO Strategic Risk-Taking
Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings, Vol.2023(1)
08/2023
DOI: 10.5465/AMPROC.2023.12453abstract
Abstract
Abstract only
Women, including women CEOs, are often considered to be uniformly more risk averse than men. The upper echelon research has found support for this ubiquitous assumption, although recent literature has begun to find that women, compared to men, may take more risk in leading firms. We argue that these findings may be affected by the fact that women are not all the same; they have historically faced glass-ceiling challenges in reaching the upper echelon, and once they do, they may be confronted with different types of challenges than men. We take a nuanced approach and consider how individual and situational factors affect women CEOs’ strategic risk-taking. In doing so, we aim to develop the concept of gender-based experiential risk aversion. We test our hypotheses using a sample of 802 CEO appointments to the S&P 1500 and a proprietary dataset that includes the pre-appointment career trajectories of CEOs. Our results challenge universal assumptions of women CEOs’ risk aversion by indicating that female CEOs are more likely to choose risky strategies when they are younger, have less years of executive experience, and are appointed to less stable firms. Our findings contribute to the literature on upper echelons, strategic risk-taking and experiential learning.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Gender-Based Experiential Risk Aversion Driving Women Appointed CEO Strategic Risk-Taking
- Creators
- Lale Guler - Imperial College LondonMiranda Welbourne Eleazar - U. of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Abstract
- Publication Details
- Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings, Vol.2023(1)
- DOI
- 10.5465/AMPROC.2023.12453abstract
- eISSN
- 2151-6561
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 08/2023
- Academic Unit
- Management and Entrepreneurship ; Center for Social Science Innovation; Law Faculty
- Record Identifier
- 9984649151202771
Metrics
4 Record Views