Factors of CEO failure: Mapping the debate

Abstract

The failure of the CEO has been studied at great length in the literature. We order and classify the factors that lead to CEO failure into those a CEO can influence (endogenous) and those that are given (exogenous). The absence of unanimity in the literature leads us to conclude that insufficient attention has been paid to the main factor: the personal characteristics of CEOs. The agency approach and method are insufficient to understand leadership performance in organizations, due to the oversimplified view of human nature on which they are based and their heavy reliance on mathematical modeling.