CEO Characteristics and Risk-Taking Behavior: Statistical Evidence from Saudi Arabia

This paper aims to capture the impact of CEO characteristics on corporate risk-taking behavior in the emerging stock market, namely the Saudi market, by analyzing data from 43 firms listed in TADAWUL from 2016 to 2024 using a quantitative method through two statistical models to examine how a CEO’s power, tenure, and confidence influence risk-taking behavior from accounting and market-wise perspectives. The results reveal that CEO power and CEO confidence show significantly positive coefficient impacts on market-wise corporate risk taking. In contrast, CEO tenure has no impact on market-wise corporate risk taking. In addition, CEO power and CEO confidence show an insignificant coefficient impact on accounting corporate risk taking. In contrast, CEO tenure has a significant N-shaped curve in accounting for corporate risk taking. The findings contribute to the existing accounting literature by providing new evidence from Saudi Arabia and provide insights into the influence of CEOs’ attributes in shaping a firm’s risk-taking behavior from two perspectives.