Investors' response to CFO changes: Do CFO characteristics matter?

Sammanfattning: This study aims to answer if and how investors react to CFO succession announcements. We analyze if investors value the CFO role and also if investors care about the CFO characteristics Gender and Origin in their market valuations. We use a sample of 469 observations from Nasdaq Stockholm during the period 2001-2018. The World Economic Forum ranks Sweden at the top of its gender equality index, indicating that it is a country with egalitarian attitudes. Our results show that investors react positively to female CFO announcements when the CFO change is unexpected. This indicates that the Swedish egalitarian culture favor gender equality. We do not find any evidence of that investors care about CFO succession announcements nor if the appointed CFO is external or internal. These findings contribute to recent studies on the increased importance of the CFO role. We suggest that Swedish investors' price diversity into the stock prices and question if the CFO is as important as recent studies have concluded.