NEXUS BETWEEN CEO ATTRIBUTES, CORPORATE REPUTATION, FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE, AND CORPORATE SUSTAINABLE GROWTH IN FINANCIAL AND NON-FINANCIAL FIRMS OF PAKISTAN

Abstract

The study examined the nexus between CEO attributes, corporate reputation, financial performance, and corporate sustainable growth across financial and non financial firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange. Using fixed effect and pooled OLS models, the findings revealed mixed associations between CEO characteristics and firm performance indicators (ROA, ROE, and Tobin’s Q). For non financial firms, CEO diversity, duality, tenure, age, and compensation generally showed negative relationships with profitability, while corporate sustainable growth, CEO busyness, and firm size were positively associated. In contrast, financial firms exhibited positive effects of CEO diversity, duality, and sustainable growth on ROA, though CEO compensation and tenure remained negatively linked. ROE analysis indicated stronger explanatory power, with CEO diversity, duality, tenure, age, and sustainable growth positively influencing profitability in non financial firms, while financial firms showed positive impacts of diversity, compensation, and sustainable growth but negative effects of duality and tenure. Tobin’s Q results suggested weaker and inconsistent relationships, with sustainable growth and firm size showing some positive influence. Overall, the results highlight that CEO attributes exert heterogeneous effects across sectors, with corporate sustainable growth consistently emerging as a significant positive driver of firm performance.