10440: Director Exits After Power Struggles with the CEO (session 26375)

Tuesday, July 29, 2025

13:45 - 15:15 CEST (GMT+2)

Location: Bella Center: Hall B- B4-m2

Session Type: Paper Session
Orientation: Practice,Research
Shareable link: https://cdmcd.co/wjAmvv

Author(s)

AW

Andrew Ward

Lehigh University, United States
JB

Jill Ann Brown

Bentley U. - College of Business - Management Department, United States
PA

Punit Arora

City University of New York Graduate Center, United States
CC

Cynthia E. Clark

Bentley University, United States

Constructing a unique dataset of director resignation letters from U.S. publicly traded companies, we examine occasions when board members contest the power of a CEO, but lose this contest, resulting in the exit of the board member. Drawing on the circulation of power theory, we propose that the political dynamics of CEO/board relationships extend beyond the original theory’s focus on CEO exits to include director exits as well. We find that the initial director exit after a contestation with the CEO sets in motion a cascading effect of further director exits until the CEO departs and a new coalition assumes dominance. Additionally, we find that the cascading effects of shifting coalitions extend to the top management team as well, with team members leaving in the wake of changing political dynamics.

view paper (if available)