Chasing (or Escaping) the Limelight? How CEO Sex and Narcissism predict Environmental Performance

22.08.2024 12:00 – 13:00

MANAGEMENT BROWN BAG SEMINAR / SHORT ABSTRACT

According to strategy research, firms with more narcissistic CEOs and firms with women CEOs show better environmental performance (EP). However, we propose that better EP is unexpected when jointly considering these CEO characteristics. Although strategy (and personality psychology) scholars theorize that positive attention drives more narcissistic CEOs’ EP, by considering CEO sex and the gendered factors influencing CEO cognition and behavior, we theorize that this effect reverses for women CEOs. To do so, we develop and validate a novel measure of CEO narcissism to test how CEO sex, narcissism, and positive attention shape EP. With two mixed methods studies, we triangulate evidence supporting our hypotheses from S&P 1500 firm panel data (Study 1) and an experiment with strategic leaders (Study 2). Results show that more narcissism negatively affects EP with women leaders but positively affects EP with men leaders when EP generates more positive attention from the media. This research advances a more precise understanding of the role of CEO narcissism on EP for men and women CEOs, thus explaining the mixed effects in separately developing literatures on CEO narcissism and on CEO sex; we also contribute to the microfoundations of (environmental) strategy with important implications for scholarship and practice.

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