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

公司高层的领导主要由男性担任。男性在高层领导职位上占主导地位的一个原因是男性性别和领导角色的一致性。这样的性别角色是对与女性或男性相关的特征的“共识信念”。男性性别角色与代理行为有关，如支配、野心和自信，使他们几乎与我们社会中传统的领导角色一致。相反，女性则被期望表现出共同的特质，比如同情、友爱和善良。这些特质与优秀领导者的必备素质形成鲜明对比。不足为奇的是，在企业环境中很少能找到男性领导特权的变化。本项目旨在研究性别对投资者反应的影响，将“恶习”视为“美德”，直接关注偏离男性领导特权。基于代理男性性别角色和领导角色的一致性，我们旨在调查首席执行官对代理男性性别角色的遵守与首次公开发行（IPO）期间投资者反应之间的关系。我们试图检验对代理男性性别角色的遵从性，而不管它是在男性还是女性ceo中发现的。我们认为，投资者将欣赏与男性性别一致的首席执行官，从而欣赏传统的领导角色。我们将采用混合方法来更好地理解投资者对IPO期间CEO代理行为的反应。在第一步中，我们将使用在公司IPO期间路演活动中CEO演讲的视频分析来推断CEO对男性性别角色的遵从。基于衍生的CEO“代理评级”，我们将研究CEO代理对投资者反应的影响。在第二步中，我们将在一个受控的环境中复制视频研究，以了解研究1中发现的效应背后的机制，并调查代理男性性别角色如何与生理性别相互作用。在这个受控的环境中，我们将测试对CEO代理行为的欣赏是否在两性中遵循相同的模式。

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.