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Fight or flight: managing stigma in executive careers
Author(s) -
Semadeni Matthew,
Cannella Jr. Albert A.,
Fraser Donald R.,
Lee D. Scott
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
strategic management journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 11.035
H-Index - 286
eISSN - 1097-0266
pISSN - 0143-2095
DOI - 10.1002/smj.661
Subject(s) - bankruptcy , stigma (botany) , ex ante , business , economics , demographic economics , psychology , finance , psychiatry , macroeconomics
Abstract We examine the labor market consequences borne by executives who remain at financially distressed firms relative to those who flee to another employer to avoid the stigma of failure. Our study makes two contributions. First, we document an ex ante dimension of executive labor markets unaccounted for by ex post settling up models. Specifically, we show that executives who ‘jump ship’—change employers in the two years prior to the failure—suffer fewer labor market consequences than their counterparts who remain with the failing firm. Second, we extend the study of bankruptcy stigma to examine how stigma might be managed by jumping ship. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.