C-Suite Bias, Firm Characteristics, and Capital Structure Decisions of Quoted Industrial Firms in Nigeria

Abstract

Most people exaggerate their own skills and accomplishments, which can have disastrous results. The C-suite has a tremendous impact on business choices, as decisions made in the workplace can be skewed by unconscious prejudice, and this bias can have negative consequences. Therefore, this study explores C-suite bias, firm characteristics, and capital structure decisions of quoted industrial goods firms in Nigeria. Data from 2002 to 2020 was used in an ex-post-facto research design while pooled OLS was used for analyses. The study found that C-suite tenure had a favourable influence on capital structure, suggesting that the duration during which C-suite executives govern their firms’ affairs has a beneficial effect on the capital structure decisions. Therefore, the study advances that corporations should enable C-suite members to serve for a longer period of time; because the longer they remain at the helm of the company’s affairs, the better their capital structure decisions.

Keywords

• c-suites
• behavioural accounting
• capital structure
• biases
• overconfidence