Leadership during the Pandemic: Exploring the Nexus between CEO Attributes and Firm Resilience

Dear Colleagues,

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought enormous challenges to the business world. This is an event that has forced CEOs to explore alternative solutions to remain afloat. During the pandemic, CEOs had to deal with abrupt dislocation of the workforce, changes in customer behaviour, and disruption in supply chain function, affecting the business performance and long-term sustainability. The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the way CEOs lead during a global crisis.

There is a growing body of research focusing on the role of the CEO to ensure firm resilience during a financial crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Hu et al. (2020) found that CEO overconfidence substantially mitigates the negative effect of firm exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic. Longenecker and Wittmer (2022) provide ten main drivers of CEO learning during the pandemic. Alves et al. (2021) show that if suspensions are driven by a large exogenous shock, some CEOs will be able to keep shareholders' support by sharing the pain.

Haque et al. show that firms led by insider CEOs outperformed those led by outsider CEOs in terms of return on assets during the COVID-19 crisis period in 2020, but there was no performance differential in the period before the crisis. Hoang et al. (2022) indicate that start-ups with CEO duality performed better during the pandemic. Unsal et al. (2016) provide a correlation between lobbying firm CEO stock transactions and bills being passed. Brodmann et al. (2019) indicate that the effect of lobbying on firm performance depends on the CEO's political ideology. Saleem et al. (2020) found that deviance from governance practices influences a firm’s performance. However, we do not have evidence for such an association during the pandemic.

Irrespective of the ongoing debate and discussion among academics, this Special Issue intends to provide future direction to CEO attributes that make a positive impact on firm performance during a financial crisis. The Special Issue will specifically address, but will not be limited to, the following sub-themes:

• CEO overconfidence and performance of financial and non-financial firms.
• CEO remuneration structure before and after the COVID pandemic.
• Cross-border and industry-wide performance comparison of firms led by male and female CEOs.
• Use of social media by CEOs as a stakeholder management tool during the pandemic.
• CEO attributes and risk management in financial and non-financial firms during the pandemic.
• CEO attributes and performance comparison between Islamic and conventional financial institutions during the pandemic.
• Positives and negatives of CEO duality during the pandemic.
• CEO attributes and risk management strategies during the pandemic.
• CEO personality, social ties and firm response to the COVID pandemic.
• CEO overconfidence and dividend decision during the pandemic.
• CEO political connection and firm performance during the pandemic.
• CEO attribute and innovation during the pandemic.
• CEO compensation, insider trading and political lobbying during the pandemic.

Prof. Dr. M. Kabir Hassan
Dr. Rashedul Hasan
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Financial Studies is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• CEO overconfidence
• CEO narcissism
• CEO remuneration
• insider vs. outsider CEO
• CEO duality
• CEO media appearance
• CEO personality
• CEO reactiveness
• CEO attributes
• CEO duality
• CEO social ties
• women CEO
• CEO tenure
• CEO industry affiliation
• firm performance
• firm resilience
• internal control
• risk management
• COVID-19
• pandemic
• financial crisis