The Rise of Corporate Titans: CEOs in the UK, 1900-2016
Principal Investigator: John Turner
Co-Investigator: Michael Aldous
Researchers: Philip Fliers and Robin Adams
Funder: Research Project Grant, The Leverhulme Trust (awarded 2018)
Co-Investigator: Michael Aldous
Researchers: Philip Fliers and Robin Adams
Funder: Research Project Grant, The Leverhulme Trust (awarded 2018)
Project Description:
Despite the importance ascribed to the role of CEOs by popular opinion and scholars in management, sociology, economics and finance, there is a surprising lack of rigorous historical analysis of CEOs or their impact on firm performance. We will analyse how the CEO role and characteristics have evolved over time, and test how these developments have affected firm performance. In order to achieve this end, we will construct a database of CEO observable personality, demographic and professional characteristics from over 600 major British public companies, with a matching database of firm performance metrics across the 20th century.
Project Objectives:
Despite the importance ascribed to the role of CEOs by popular opinion and scholars in management, sociology, economics and finance, there is a surprising lack of rigorous historical analysis of CEOs or their impact on firm performance. We will analyse how the CEO role and characteristics have evolved over time, and test how these developments have affected firm performance. In order to achieve this end, we will construct a database of CEO observable personality, demographic and professional characteristics from over 600 major British public companies, with a matching database of firm performance metrics across the 20th century.
Project Objectives:
- Discover the characteristics and career paths of UK CEOs from 1900 to 2016.
- Identify changes in the role of the CEO over time.
- Examine the effects that changes in legal and political institutions, economic environment and industrial organization have on CEO characteristics.
- Analyse the relationship between CEO characteristics and firm performance in the long run.