تاثیر ویژگی مدیران ارشد بر عملکرد مالی شرکت های ریسک کننده
Abstract
Introduction
Institutional background
Literature review and hypotheses
development
Research design
Empirical results
Discussion and conclusion
References
Abstract
We examine the effects of four key dimensions of Chief Executive Officers’ (CEOs’) traits on six financial performance metrics using panel data for 1999−2012 drawn from the UK's property−casualty insurance industry. We find that CEO insurance experience and CEO financial expertise enhance financial performance, while two other CEO traits − power and age − are generally not significant. Our results thus reinforce the importance of CEO insurance industry expertise and CEO financial expertise in the management and trading of risks. Our results have potential commercial and policy implications.
Introduction
Nowhere are financial performance indicators so central to corporate governance and the realization of strategic activities than in firms engaged in the trading, bearing and management of extreme risks such as those operating in the insurance industry (Landier et al., 2012). Insurance is a highly specialized and technically complex commercial activity (e.g. in terms of risk selection and pricing) that protects the consumers of insurance (the policyholders) from contractually contingent economic losses through the effective diversification of assumed risks and returns on invested assets (Knights and Vurdubakis, 1993). Another distinguishing feature of insurance is that, in contrast to other industries, the management of risk and uncertainty impacts directly on policyholders as the value of their future financial claims is dependent on the strength and condition of the insurance provider (Desai, 2014). As a result, insurers are archetypal risk-bearing/risk-trading enterprises whose financial model involves managing balance sheet assets and liabilities through the matching of cash inflows from written premiums and income from well-diversified investment portfolios with cash outflows on settled claims and business expenses (Starita and Malafronte, 2014). In developed insurance markets, such as the UK, insurers operate within a stringent statutory and regulatory framework that is designed to maintain financial resilience and protect the fixed contractual claims of policyholders (Gaa and Krinsky, 1988). Additionally, since the 1980s the international insurance industry has been subject to increased product-market competition, increased scrutiny by the public media and heightened financial constraints (Knights and Willmott, 1993). Moreover, board-level financial expertise has become particularly pertinent in insurance firms since the UK’s Financial Services and Markets Act (2000) and the greater degree of statutory compliance that it imposed, including regulatory approval of senior executive appointments (Dewing and Russell, 2008). Together these institutional factors necessitate that the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of insurance firms are proficient in the technical and governance aspects of risk and insurance, and have sufficient firm-related knowledge and financial management acumen to make strategic decisions that maximize firm value within the confines of regulation and market competition. These considerations could increase the need for the CEOs of insurance firms to use their discretion and influence in initiating and directing strategic decisions.