Does Firm Volatility Affect Managerial Influence

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to develop and test a new theory that firm volatility can affect managerial output. Theoretical underpinnings for the hypothesis are developed and drawn from the existent literature. This hypothesis is then tested with data from 3,296 companies listed on the Korea Stock Exchange (KSE) from 1999 through 2008. The theory and the empirical results in this paper suggest that the effect of managers on firm performance differs with the degree of firm volatility. We find that a higher ratio of directors from top-ranking academic institutions leads to an increase in market value when firms suffer high volatility. Moreover, these results suggest that the interaction between executive characteristics and firm volatility has important consequences for firm performance. The findings expand our view of firm volatility to previous studies.

Keywords Volatility, Managerial Influence, Firm performance