Beyond Biology? - The Impact of CEO Agency on Investor Reactions during an IPO

公司高层的领导力很大程度上是由男性完成的。男性在最高领导职位上占据主导地位的一个原因是男性性别和领导角色的一致性。这样的性别角色是关于与女性或男性相关的特征的“共识信念”。男性性别角色与支配地位、野心和自信等代理行为有关，这使得他们与我们社会中的传统领导角色几乎是一致的。相比之下，女性应该表现出共性，比如同情心、爱心和善良。这些特质与一名优秀领导者的必备品质形成了鲜明对比。不足为奇的是，在企业环境中很少发现与男性领导特权不同的情况。该项目旨在研究性别对投资者反应的影响，将“恶习”视为一种“美德”，直接关注偏离男性领导特权的情况。基于代理男性角色和领导角色的一致性，我们的目标是调查CEO对代理男性角色的遵守程度与首次公开募股(IPO)期间投资者反应之间的关系。我们寻求检查对代理男性性别角色的遵从性，无论这是在男性还是女性首席执行官身上找到的。我们认为，投资者会喜欢首席执行官按照男性的性别行事，因此也会喜欢传统的领导角色。我们将采用混合方法，以更好地了解投资者对IPO期间CEO代理行为的反应。在第一步中，我们将使用一段首席执行官在公司IPO前后路演活动中的演讲视频分析来推断首席执行官对男性性别角色的遵守情况。基于得出的CEO代理评级，我们将考察CEO代理对投资者反应的影响。在第二步中，我们将在受控环境中复制视频研究，以了解研究1中发现的影响背后的机制，并调查男性性别角色如何与生物性别相互作用。在这一受控背景下，我们将测试CEO代理行为的欣赏是否遵循性别相同的模式。

Leadership at the top of firms is largely performed by men. One reason for this male dominance in top leadership positions has been found in the congruity of male gender and leadership roles. Such gender roles are "consensual beliefs" about traits that are associated with either women or men. Male gender roles are associated with agentic behavior, such as dominance, ambition, and assertiveness, rendering them almost congruent with traditional leadership roles in our society. In contrast, women are expected to show communal traits, such as sympathy, affection, and kindness. These traits stand in sharp contrast to what is deemed necessary for a good leader. Not surprisingly, variations from the male leadership prerogative can seldom be found in the corporate landscape.This project aims to research gender effects on investor reactions by taking the "vice" as a “virtue" and directly focusing on deviations from the male leadership prerogative. Building on the idea of the congruity of agentic male gender roles and leadership roles, we aim to investigate the relationship between a CEO’s compliance with agentic male gender roles and investors reactions during an Initial Public Offering (IPO). We seek to examine the compliance with agentic male gender roles independently of whether it is to be found in male or female CEOs. We argue that investors will appreciate CEOs acting in line with male gender and, therefore, traditional leadership roles. We will apply a mixed method approach to gain a better understanding of investor reactions to CEO agentic behavior during an IPO. In a first step we will use a video analysis of speeches of CEOs held during road show events around the time of the firm’s IPO to infer a CEO’s compliance with male gender roles. Based on the derived "agency Rating" of the CEOs, we will investigate the impact of CEO agency on investor reactions. In a second step we will replicate the video study in a controlled setting to get an understanding of the mechanisms behind the effects found in study 1, and to investigate how the agentic male gender role interacts with biological sex. In this controlled setting, we will test whether the appreciation of CEO agentic behavior follows the same patterns for both sexes.