Which CEO Characteristics and Abilities Matter?

Steven N. Kaplan, Mark M. Klebanov, Morten Sorensen

NBER Working Paper No. 14195
Issued in July 2008
NBER Program(s):Corporate Finance

We study the characteristics and abilities of CEO candidates for companies involved in buyout (LBO) and venture capital (VC) transactions and relate them to hiring decisions, investment decisions, and company performance. Candidates are assessed on more than thirty individual abilities. The abilities are highly correlated; a factor analysis suggests there are two primary factors with intuitive characterizations -- one for general ability and one that contrasts team-related, interpersonal skills with execution skills. Both LBO and VC firms are more likely to hire and invest in CEOs with greater general abilities, both execution- and team-related. Success, however, is more strongly related to execution skills than to team-related skills. Success is, at best, only marginally related to incumbency, holding observable talent and ability constant.

A non-technical summary of this paper is available in the February 2009 NBER Digest.  You can sign up to receive the NBER Digest by email.

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Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w14195

Published: STEVEN N. KAPLAN & MARK M. KLEBANOV & MORTEN SORENSEN, 2012. "Which CEO Characteristics and Abilities Matter?," The Journal of Finance, vol 67(3), pages 973-1007.

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