Young CEOs more ambitious than their older counterparts

VANCOUVER — Researchers at the University of British Columbia now believe that the business world is far more animal than logical.

Finance professors Maurice Levi and Kai Li, along with PhD student Feng Zhang, have together published a study showing a strong link between erratic business decisions and male CEOs with high levels of testosterone.

“Traditionally, finance is all based on a view that everything is rational,” Levi, who has previously studied the impact of Seasonal Affective Disorder on the stock market, told QMI Agency. “But it’s only been recently that human factors are entering the metric as well. There are animal instincts at play in the corporate world.”

According to their analysis of 350 merger and acquisition bids in the U.S. between 1997 and 2007, the trio found that young male CEOs — who have plenty of testosterone coursing through their veins — are four times more likely to try to take over another company.

They’re also 20% more likely to withdraw from a bid in progress, even if it is against their best interests, compared to their elders.

“It’s all about dominance,” said Levi. “You don’t become a CEO at a young age without being very ambitious. It’s a form of dominance, not just in male human beings, but most mammals. Shareholders might want to be wary of a young CEO running the company.”