Fight or flight: managing stigma in executive careers

We examine the labor market consequences borne by executives who remain at financially distressed firms relative to those who flee to another employer to avoid the stigma of failure. Our study makes two contributions. First, we document an ex ante dimension of executive labor markets unaccounted for...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Strategic management journal Vol. 29; no. 5; pp. 557 - 567
Main Authors: Semadeni, Matthew, Cannella Jr, Albert A., Fraser, Donald R., Lee, D. Scott
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 01.05.2008
John Wiley and Sons
Wiley Periodicals Inc
Subjects:
Bank assets
Bank failures
Bank loans
Bank management
Banking industry
Bankruptcy
Banks
Business studies
Career development planning
Employers
Employment
executive career management
Executives
failure
financial distress
Financial management
Financial performance
Jumping
Labor market
Labor markets
Leadership
Management science
management turnover
managerial labor markets
Occupations
Research Notes and Commentaries
Senior management
ship jumping
Social stigma
Stigma
Studies
ISSN:0143-2095, 1097-0266
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:We examine the labor market consequences borne by executives who remain at financially distressed firms relative to those who flee to another employer to avoid the stigma of failure. Our study makes two contributions. First, we document an ex ante dimension of executive labor markets unaccounted for by ex post settling up models. Specifically, we show that executives who 'jump ship'--change employers in the two years prior to the failure--suffer fewer labor market consequences than their counterparts who remain with the failing firm. Second, we extend the study of bankruptcy stigma to examine how stigma might be managed by jumping ship.
Bibliography:istex:DB5EA75CD9EF070946A19E9193879980B621EEEE
ArticleID:SMJ661
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ObjectType-Feature-1
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ISSN:0143-2095
1097-0266
DOI:10.1002/smj.661