New brooms : the stock market reaction to foreign CEO succession in Switzerland

Using event study methodology, this paper examines the immediate investor reaction to foreign and domestic CEO succession announcements in internationalised firms and analyses whether the stock market reacts differently to the two. Results suggest that crossover successions (e.g. where a foreigner follows a domestic CEO) lead to a significant negative reaction during the days immediately surrounding the succession event, whereas regular, i.e. non-crossover, successions are not associated with significant abnormal returns. It is concluded that the stock market punishes socio-cultural dissimilarity between successor and predecessor because it contributes to uncertainty about the succession