IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v76y2025ics1544612325002260.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effect of CEO extraversion on private debt

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Zongjun
  • Wang, Peng
  • Du, Yao
  • Lin, Chih-Yung

Abstract

We examine the effect of CEO extraversion on the cost of private debt. We hand-collect each daily tweet from S&P 1500 CEOs and utilize IBM Watson Personality to study their personalities. We find that extraversion in CEOs is related to risk-taking and leadership, which actuates firms to obtain benefits from their loan contracts. Particularly, these firms are more likely to encounter lower loan costs and longer loan maturities than other firms. Thus, firms managed by extraverts help to reduce the cost of bank loans.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Zongjun & Wang, Peng & Du, Yao & Lin, Chih-Yung, 2025. "The effect of CEO extraversion on private debt," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:76:y:2025:i:c:s1544612325002260
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2025.106962
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612325002260
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2025.106962?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Graham, John R. & Li, Si & Qiu, Jiaping, 2008. "Corporate misreporting and bank loan contracting," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 44-61, July.
    2. Ulrike Malmendier & Geoffrey Tate, 2005. "CEO Overconfidence and Corporate Investment," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(6), pages 2661-2700, December.
    3. Chen, Hailiang & Hwang, Byoung-Hyoun, 2022. "Listening in on investors’ thoughts and conversations," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 426-444.
    4. Joon Mahn Lee & Byoung‐Hyoun Hwang & Hailiang Chen, 2017. "Are founder CEOs more overconfident than professional CEOs? Evidence from S&P 1500 companies," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3), pages 751-769, March.
    5. Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Schurer, Stefanie, 2012. "The stability of big-five personality traits," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 11-15.
    6. Hasan, Iftekhar & Hoi, Chun Keung (Stan) & Wu, Qiang & Zhang, Hao, 2014. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder: The effect of corporate tax avoidance on the cost of bank loans," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(1), pages 109-130.
    7. Chyz, James A., 2013. "Personally tax aggressive executives and corporate tax sheltering," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 311-328.
    8. Hasan, Iftekhar & Hoi, Chun Keung (Stan) & Wu, Qiang & Zhang, Hao, 2014. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder: The effect of corporate tax avoidance on the cost of bank loans," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(1), pages 109-130.
    9. Mirko H. Benischke & Geoffrey P. Martin & Lotte Glaser, 2019. "CEO equity risk bearing and strategic risk taking: The moderating effect of CEO personality," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 153-177, January.
    10. Theophilus Lartey & Kwabena Kesse & Albert Danso, 2020. "Ceo Extraversion And Capital Structure Decisions: The Role Of Firm Dynamics, Product Market Competition, And Financial Crisis," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 43(4), pages 847-893, December.
    11. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2014_003 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Nigel Nicholson & Emma Soane & Mark Fenton-O'Creevy & Paul Willman, 2005. "Personality and domain-specific risk taking," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(2), pages 157-176, March.
    13. Joseph S. Harrison & Gary R. Thurgood & Steven Boivie & Michael D. Pfarrer, 2019. "Measuring CEO personality: Developing, validating, and testing a linguistic tool," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(8), pages 1316-1330, August.
    14. Cain, Matthew D. & McKeon, Stephen B., 2016. "CEO Personal Risk-Taking and Corporate Policies," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 51(1), pages 139-164, February.
    15. Ulrike Malmendier & Geoffrey Tate & Jon Yan, 2011. "Overconfidence and Early‐Life Experiences: The Effect of Managerial Traits on Corporate Financial Policies," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(5), pages 1687-1733, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Du, Yao & Chan, Chia-Ying & Lin, Chih-Yung & Lu, Chien-Lin, 2023. "Charitable CEOs and employee protection," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    2. Bui, Dien Giau & Chou, Robin K. & Lin, Chih-Yung & Lu, Chien-Lin, 2025. "CEO neuroticism and corporate cash holdings: Evidence from CEOs’ tweets," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    3. Giau Bui, Dien & Chen, Yehning & Lin, Chih-Yung & Lin, Tse-Chun, 2021. "Risk-taking of bank CEOs and corporate innovation," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    4. Aabo, Tom & Hanousek, Jan & Pantzalis, Christos & Park, Jung Chul, 2023. "CEO personality traits and corporate value implication of acquisitions," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 86-106.
    5. Gounopoulos, Dimitrios & Pham, Hang, 2018. "Specialist CEOs and IPO survival," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 217-243.
    6. Jan P. Voon & Chen Lin & Yiu. C. Ma, 2022. "Managerial overconfidence and bank loan covenant usage," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(4), pages 4575-4598, October.
    7. Yukun Pan & Lin Liao & Daifei Yao & Joseph H. Zhang, 2024. "Board Chairs’ Early-Life Experience and Tax Avoidance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 192(4), pages 897-917, July.
    8. Pham, Mia Hang, 2020. "In law we trust: Lawyer CEOs and stock liquidity," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    9. Lin, Chih-Yung & Chen, Yehning & Ho, Po-Hsin & Yen, Ju-Fang, 2020. "CEO overconfidence and bank loan contracting," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    10. Enkhtaivan, Bolortuya & Davaadorj, Zagdbazar, 2021. "Do they recall their past? CEOs’ liquidity policies across firms as they switch jobs," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(C).
    11. Bendig, David & Schulz, Colin & Möhwald, Maximilian & Pollok, Patrick, 2025. "Fear the loss or welcome the gains? How stock options influence CEO risk-taking in corporate cleantech investments," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 40(2).
    12. Juwon Jang & Eunju Lee, 2024. "CEO confidence matters: the real effects of short sale constraints revisited," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 62(2), pages 603-636, February.
    13. Chune Young Chung & Changhwan Choi & Do Thi Thanh Nhan, 2025. "CEO political orientation and loan contract," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 11(1), pages 1-36, December.
    14. Hrazdil, Karel & Li, Xin & Suwanyangyuan, Nattavut, 2022. "CEO happiness and forecasting," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    15. Oliver Entrop & Matthias F. Merkel, 2020. "Managers’ research education, the use of FX derivatives and corporate speculation," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 869-901, August.
    16. John Gallemore & Brandon Gipper & Edward Maydew, 2019. "Banks as Tax Planning Intermediaries," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(1), pages 169-209, March.
    17. Johannes Brunzel, 2021. "Overconfidence and narcissism among the upper echelons: a systematic literature review," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 71(3), pages 585-623, July.
    18. Khoo, Joye & Cheung, Adrian (Wai Kong), 2025. "Subordinate executives’ confidence and labor investment efficiency," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    19. Entrop, Oliver & Merkel, Matthias F., 2018. "Managers' research education, the use of FX derivatives and corporate speculation," Passauer Diskussionspapiere, Betriebswirtschaftliche Reihe B-32-18, University of Passau, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    20. Faccio, Mara & Marchica, Maria-Teresa & Mura, Roberto, 2016. "CEO gender, corporate risk-taking, and the efficiency of capital allocation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 193-209.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Private debt; CEO extraversion; IBM Watson Personality; loan cost;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:76:y:2025:i:c:s1544612325002260. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.