Date of Award
Spring 2022
Document Type
Open Access Dissertation
Department
Moore School of Business
First Advisor
Donald J. Schepker
Abstract
Scholars have explored when/why women are chosen as CEOs, and what factors explain the presence of women in the TMT, but little is known about when/why firms have women executives in their internal CEO successor candidate pool. This omission is consequential, since there are firm performance benefits to having a woman CEO who is an internal hire, and because being a CEO successor candidate helps ensure a woman executive has had skill-building opportunities that will help her thrive when she becomes CEO. To address this, my dissertation explores two research questions. First, when and why do women directors positively impact gender diversity of the CEO successor candidate pool. Second, when and why do men directors positively impact gender diversity of the CEO successor candidate pool. I build an according theoretical model predicting gender diversity of the CEO successor candidate pool, and test this model using data from the Center for Executive Succession (CES), and publicly available information on professional backgrounds of individual board directors. Findings from this dissertation contribute to the trickle-down effect literature, offer insights on which men executives are likely to be allies of gender diversity initiatives, and help scholars build better theory to explain how board directors handle the responsibility of regularly planning for CEO succession in advance.
Rights
© 2022, Andre G. Havrylyshyn
Recommended Citation
Havrylyshyn, A. G.(2022). How Decision Makers’ Career Histories Impact the Gender Diversity of the CEO Successor Candidate Pool. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/6708