CEOs’ uncommon names and corporate innovation

I study the relationship between a Chief Executive Officer (CEO)’s uncommon name and corporate innovation. Consistent with the view that individuals with uncommon names prefer being distinctive, I document a significant positive relationship between CEO name uncommonness and corporate innovation qua...

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Main Author: Yuqi Gu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2022-12-01
Series:Cogent Economics & Finance
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/23322039.2022.2147646
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author Yuqi Gu
author_facet Yuqi Gu
author_sort Yuqi Gu
collection DOAJ
description I study the relationship between a Chief Executive Officer (CEO)’s uncommon name and corporate innovation. Consistent with the view that individuals with uncommon names prefer being distinctive, I document a significant positive relationship between CEO name uncommonness and corporate innovation quantity but not quality. To mitigate endogeneity concerns, I use the death of the CEO as a plausible exogenous shock and find results are robust in the difference-in-differences setting. I further show that the impact on innovation output is concentrated in the areas that are well-known to the company, of low economic value, and have a low scientific impact. Overall, the findings presented in this paper suggests that the heightened innovation activities by uncommonly named CEO exacerbate the investment distortions.
format Article
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issn 2332-2039
language English
publishDate 2022-12-01
publisher Taylor & Francis Group
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series Cogent Economics & Finance
spelling doaj-art-35ffdfd3c0fd42c28d0d00ec5b783a882025-08-20T03:12:43ZengTaylor & Francis GroupCogent Economics & Finance2332-20392022-12-0110110.1080/23322039.2022.2147646CEOs’ uncommon names and corporate innovationYuqi Gu0Atkinson Graudate School of Management, Willamette University, Salem, OR, USAI study the relationship between a Chief Executive Officer (CEO)’s uncommon name and corporate innovation. Consistent with the view that individuals with uncommon names prefer being distinctive, I document a significant positive relationship between CEO name uncommonness and corporate innovation quantity but not quality. To mitigate endogeneity concerns, I use the death of the CEO as a plausible exogenous shock and find results are robust in the difference-in-differences setting. I further show that the impact on innovation output is concentrated in the areas that are well-known to the company, of low economic value, and have a low scientific impact. Overall, the findings presented in this paper suggests that the heightened innovation activities by uncommonly named CEO exacerbate the investment distortions.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/23322039.2022.2147646corporate innovationuncommon namesCEOG34M12O31
spellingShingle Yuqi Gu
CEOs’ uncommon names and corporate innovation
Cogent Economics & Finance
corporate innovation
uncommon names
CEO
G34
M12
O31
title CEOs’ uncommon names and corporate innovation
title_full CEOs’ uncommon names and corporate innovation
title_fullStr CEOs’ uncommon names and corporate innovation
title_full_unstemmed CEOs’ uncommon names and corporate innovation
title_short CEOs’ uncommon names and corporate innovation
title_sort ceos uncommon names and corporate innovation
topic corporate innovation
uncommon names
CEO
G34
M12
O31
url https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/23322039.2022.2147646
work_keys_str_mv AT yuqigu ceosuncommonnamesandcorporateinnovation