CEO Social Capital, Risk-Taking and Corporate Policies
72 Pages Posted: 20 Sep 2017 Last revised: 21 Nov 2017
Date Written: September 8, 2017
Abstract
We provide the first direct empirical evidence of the effect of CEO social capital on aggregate corporate risk-taking. Our theory predicts that CEOs with high social capital display higher levels of risk-seeking behavior. Consistent with this prediction, we find a positive association between CEO social capital and aggregate corporate risk-taking. Examining the channel, we show that social ties cause corporate policy actions, and these actions lead to greater volatilities in stock returns and earnings. In addition, we uncover a number of factors that significantly moderate the effects of social capital on risk-taking. We also show that this increase in risk-taking is value-enhancing to the firm. Our results are robust to alternative proxies for risk-taking, alternative model specifications, and tests for endogeneity.
Keywords: Social Capital; Social Networks; Corporate Risk-Taking
JEL Classification: G30; Z13
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation