This study explores how CEOs’ response to strong negative capital market feedback regard-ing their communicated strategic agenda depends on their personality traits. Building on concepts from social psychology, we propose that CEOs will adjust their communicated strategy agenda after receiving strong negative feedback. However, CEOs are likely heterogenous in their interpre-tations of feedback due to inherent differences in their cognition. As personality traits shape how individual interpret and respond to external stimuli, we integrate social cognition theory with the Five-Factor Model of Personality (FFM). We propose that CEOs’ interpretation of feedback de-pends on the facets of their personality traits. Using textual analysis in conference calls and a sam-ple of 52,459 firm-quarter observations for 3,152 CEOs, we find strong support for our baseline and the moderating effects of CEO neuroticisms and extraversion. In contrast, we do not find sup-port for our arguments of CEO agreeableness and openness. Thereby, our findings contribute to the literature on feedback, personality, and strategic communication.
