Are CEOs judged on their companies' social reputation?

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Since the UK was placed in lockdown on 23rd March there have been countless articles, tweets and posts about how, in years to come, businesses will be asked what action they took during the coronavirus pandemic including this one in the FT yesterday (“Now is the time to emerge as a corporate ‘saint’ not ‘sinner’” | Kaye Wiggins |Financial Times | 11th May 2020)

But when this is all over, will people really remember and will the #coronavillains really get their comeuppance? Well, some new research from my colleagues at Alliance Manchester Business School demonstrates that what Chief Executives do today has lasting consequences on their future in business.

The paper, co-authored by Professor Ian Garrett and Dr Ning Gao finds that company social reputation has significant labour-market consequences for CEOs and that social reputation is an essential determinant of an individual’s status on the Non-Exec Director market.