CGRI research spans these topics: general principles, board of directors, leadership and succession planning, compensation, audit and risk, shareholders, and proxy advisory.
Equity, Insider Trading, & Restatements
This Research Spotlight provides a summary of the academic literature on the impact of equity ownership on firm performance and agency problems:…
Board Evaluations and Boardroom Dynamics
The boards of all publicly traded companies are required to conduct a self-evaluation at least annually to determine whether they are functioning…
CEO Pay Levels
This Research Spotlight provides a summary of the academic literature on CEO pay levels in the United States. It reviews the evidence of:
…From Boardroom to C-Suite: Why Would a Company Pick a Current Director as CEO?
Many observers consider the most important responsibility of the board of directors its responsibility to hire and fire the CEO. To this end, an…
Punishing CEOs for Bad Behavior: 2017 Public Perception Survey
In summer 2016, the…
2016 Survey: Board of Director Evaluation and Effectiveness
In the summer of 2016, the…
Internal vs. External CEOs
This Research Spotlight provides a summary of the academic literature on internal and external CEOs. It reviews the evidence of:
- …
Succession “Losers”: What Happens to Executives Passed Over for the CEO Job?
Shareholders pay considerable attention to the choice of executive selected as the new CEO whenever a change in leadership takes place. However,…
CEO Attributes and Firm Performance
This Research Spotlight provides a summary of the academic literature on the influence that CEOs have on company outcomes (performance and risk).…
CEO Turnover
This Research Spotlight provides a summary of the academic literature on relation between CEO performance and turnover. It reviews the evidence of…
Political Connections and the Informativeness of Insider Trades
This paper examines the relation between political connections and informed trading by corporate insiders in the context of the Financial Crisis.…
The “Buy Side” View on CEO Pay
Executive compensation is a highly controversial topic. Journalists, governance commentators, and members of the American public believe that the…
Gadflies at the Gate: Why Do Individual Investors Sponsor Shareholder Resolutions?
Individual investors are active participants in the shareholder resolution process, filing approximately one quarter of the total number of…
CEO Personality and Firm Policies
Based on two samples of high quality personality data for chief executive officers (CEOs), we use linguistic features extracted from conferences…
Chairman and CEO: The Controversy Over Board Leadership Structure
One of the most controversial issues in corporate governance is whether the CEO of a corporation should also serve as chairman of the board. In…
Scoundrels in the C-Suite: How Should the Board Respond When a CEO’s Bad Behavior Makes the News?
The board of directors has a responsibility to investigate credible allegations that management has engaged in activity that is not in the…
Causal Inference in Accounting Research
This paper examines the approaches accounting researchers adopt to draw causal inferences using observational (or nonexperimental) data. The vast…
Governance Aches and Pains: Is Bad Governance Chronic?
Institutional investors pay considerable attention to the quality of a company’s governance. Unfortunately, it is difficult for outside observers…
CEO Pay at Valeant: Does Extreme Compensation Create Extreme Risk?
The litmus test for an effective compensation program is whether it provides “pay for performance.” While the concept of pay for performance is…
Diverse Boards
This Research Spotlight provides a summary of the research literature on whether companies with diverse boards (in terms of background, gender, or…
How Important Is Culture? A Second Look at Keller Williams Realty
Keller Williams is one of the most successful real estate franchises in the world. The leaders of the company attribute its growth in large part…
CEO Pay, Performance, and Value Sharing
CEO compensation is a highly controversial subject. While most company directors believe that CEO pay is not a problem, the majority of the…
Americans and CEO Pay: 2016 Public Perception Survey on CEO Compensation
Recently, the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University conducted a nationwide survey of 1,202 individuals — representative by…
CEOs and Directors on Pay: 2016 Survey on CEO Compensation
Recently, Heidrick & Struggles and the…