UC Irvine

In today’s world, CEOs are frequently dismissed following corporate misconduct or poor performance. Yet, it is often difficult to predict when boards will dismiss the CEOs, as the same behavior often results in different decisions across firms. Taking a socio-cognitive perspective, this article explores the factors that lead a CEO to become tarnished. It then uses expectancy violation theory combined with attribution theory as well as stakeholder theory, concepts of legitimacy, and motivational theory to understand how the board evaluates the tarnished CEO. Given the increasing incidence of CEO dismissal, this paper provides an important contribution to both academic research and to corporate boards who face the responsibility of deciding how to respond to instances of poor firm performance and corporate misconduct.