Monitoring by the Financial Press and Forced CEO Turnover

Authors

Kathleen A. Farrell, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
David A. Whidbee, Washington State UniversityFollow

Date of this Version

12-2002

Comments

Published in Journal of Banking & Finance 26:12 (2002), pp. 2249–2276; doi: 10.1016/S0378-4266(01)00183-2 Copyright © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. Used by permission.

Abstract

This paper examines Wall Street Journal news stories about 79 firms that forced CEO turnover and a matched sample of firms that did not force CEO turnover. In the two years prior to turnover, firms in the forced-turnover sample were the subjects of 76% more news stories about poor firm performance despite being from the same industry, of similar size, and similar performance as a sample of matched firms. Overall, the evidence suggests that scrutiny of poor firm performance by the financial press increases the likelihood of forced CEO turnover.