Article

CEO media coverage and cash holdings

Jan 01, 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.irfa.2023.103041

Published in: International Review of Financial Analysis

Utilising a unique hand-collected dataset, this paper examines the relationship between media coverage of chief executive officers (CEOs) and cash holding. Using a sample of all stocks listed on the S&P 500 over the period 2005–2020, we find a positive and significant relationship between CEO media coverage and cash holdings. Our additional analyses demonstrate that CEO mobility and firm age positively moderate the relationship between CEO media coverage and corporate cash holdings, whereas CEO reputational capital and CEO tenure negatively moderate this relationship. This implies that CEOs with intensive media coverage tend to hold more cash than those with non-intensive media coverage because the media pays more attention to covering reputed CEOs who are characterised by great potential. Therefore, those with intensive media coverage hold more cash because they have more to lose in terms of future career outlook and financial incentives, especially since their reputations are fragile and easily damaged.

Other Researches

High-profile leadership: celebrity CEOs and corporate cash reserves

Purpose Using a hand-collected dataset, this research contributes to the literature on how CEO personal qualities influence company choices and decision-making. To accomplish this, it investigates the relationship between the CEO’s personal celebri...

Right-to-Work Laws and Firm Productivity in U.S. Firms

We investigate the impact of Right-to-Work (RTW) laws on firm-level total factor productivity (TFP) in U.S. firms. We find that RTW laws, which reduce union bargaining power, are associated with a decrease in firm-level TFP, particularly for firms a...

The dark side of intangibles? Organizational capital and corporate investment efficiency

Purpose Organizational capital (OK) represents an important intangible productive firm asset, yet one subject to agency problems. This paper provides a first examination of how OK impacts corporate investment inefficiency using an unbalanced panel ...

Being famous matters: Evidence from cash flow volatility

Corporate reputation is a paramount driver of value creation and competitive advantage in the 21st century. Motivated by the importance of cash flows and the under-researched nature of their volatility in the corporate finance literature, we investi...

Are MBA CEOs really more risk-averse?

This paper extends the literature on upper echelons theory that emphasizes the impact of top executives' personal characteristics on their choices by examining the relationship between CEOs holding MBAs and the riskiness of corporate policies, inclu...

Cryptocurrency volatility: A review, synthesis, and research agenda

This paper takes part in the ongoing debate on the newly emerging field of financial technology by systematically reviewing 164 articles on cryptocurrency volatility during the period from 2016 to December 2022. This paper also aims to enlighten aca...