CEO's self-oriented perfectionism, strategic decision comprehensiveness and firm resilience

Abstract

PurposeFirm resilience is critical for firm survival and development. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether chief executive officer's (CEO) self-oriented perfectionism affects firm resilience by taking into consideration of the mediating role of strategic decision comprehensiveness and the moderating effect of competitive uncertainty.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts the survey method and uses two-wave survey data collected from 140 CEOs in different industries in China. The ordinary least square (OLS) regression model and path analysis are adopted to test the authors' theoretical hypotheses.FindingsThe results show that self-oriented perfectionism drives CEOs to pay attention to thoroughness and detail, which helps enhance strategic decision comprehensiveness and further facilitates firm resilience. Furthermore, the positive effect of CEO's self-oriented perfectionism on strategic decision comprehensiveness is weakened when competitive uncertainty is high.Practical implicationsTo promote firm resilience, self-oriented perfectionism can be considered when hiring or promoting key decision-makers. When making strategic decisions, top managers need to search for adequate information, consider various factors and seek more alternative plans to improve strategic decision comprehensiveness to further facilitate firm resilience.Originality/valueThis study pioneers the influence of CEO's perfectionism on firm resilience and further tackles the underlying mechanism behind the influence, which contributes to extending the micro-foundation of firm resilience and enriching perfectionism literature in the strategic leadership field.

CEO overconfidence and financial reporting complexity: evidence from textual analysis

“…This perspective, deeply embedded in the upper echelon theory, emphasizes the critical role of CEOs' personality traits in shaping corporate trajectories. Over the decades, there has been considerable attention to various CEO characteristics, from narcissism (Buyl et al, 2019) to greed (Sajko et al, 2021), self-oriented perfectionism (Wang et al, 2023) and, notably, overconfidence (Kunz and Sonnenholzner, 2023). CEOOC, in particular, has gained prominence in recent management theories.…”

“…Hambrick (2007) underscored the profound influence top executives exert on organizational outcomes, noting, “If one wants to understand why organizations do the things they do, or why they perform the way they do, one must consider the biases and dispositions of their most powerful actors—their top executives.” This perspective, deeply embedded in the upper echelon theory, emphasizes the critical role of CEOs' personality traits in shaping corporate trajectories. Over the decades, there has been considerable attention to various CEO characteristics, from narcissism (Buyl et al ., 2019) to greed (Sajko et al ., 2021), self-oriented perfectionism (Wang et al ., 2023) and, notably, overconfidence (Kunz and Sonnenholzner, 2023). CEOOC, in particular, has gained prominence in recent management theories.…”