Relations between CEO characteristics and mergers and acquisition decisions in Brazilian companies

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the probability of companies to perform Mergers & Acquisitions (M&As) based on the characteristics of the CEO.. We use a sample of 794 CEOs of nonfinancial firms, which were listed on the B3 from 2000 to 2017. We adopt a descriptive approach and run logistic regressions to examine the probability of a company performing M&As, given the characteristics of its CEO. We show that CEOs with finance backgrounds are less likely to perform M&As. We find no statistically significant correlations for other CEO’s characteristics, such as executive tenure, age, education, participation as chair of the board, previous experience as an entrepreneur or being a shareholder of the acquiring company.