CEO’s Background Characteristics, Financing Preference and Firm Performance – Empirical Evidence From China’s A-Share Listed Companies

Abstract

We carry out regression analysis using data of 300 companies listed in China’s A-share market in 2015, and introduce the shareholdings of top ten shareholders and corporate current ratio in regression models as control variables. We reach the follow conclusions: in China, (1) gender and education background of a CEO and equity incentives have no significant impact on firm performance; (2) among China’s current A-share listed companies, excessive self-confidence does exist in CEOs, and has a negative impact on firm performance; (3) Corporate financing preference plays a partial mediator role in the relationship between CEO’s self-confidence and firm performance.