Wrinkle of change? The reproduction of executive age profiles across CEO succession episodes

We examine the reproduction of executive age profiles across chief executive officer (CEO) succession episodes. Counter to the trend of the general workforce becoming more age-diverse, executives appear to have become more age homogenous and increasingly older at appointment. This is despite increasing frequency of CEO succession episodes, which represent opportunities for demographic change at the top. Combining insights from upper echelons theory, homosocial reproduction theory, and executive succession research, we examine age homophily as an underexamined response to appease some of the disruptiveness surrounding CEO succession episodes. Exploiting CEO succession as a theoretical context for change and an empirical identification strategy, we construct a sample of 391 successions in 297 Standard and Poor’s 500 index companies from 2000 to 2020 and apply a hierarchical linear modeling specification to test hypotheses. We find general support for the notion that age profiles of departing CEOs and incumbent top management teams (TMTs) tend to be reproduced across succession episodes. However, some intriguing patterns emerge when accounting for the origin of the incoming CEO. Notably, some of these general tendencies may be reinforced under outsider CEO successors—counter to the usual expectation for upheaval prompted by outside CEO appointments. We discuss implications for theory and practice.