A Study on the Impact of Public Enterprises CEOs’ Person-Job Fit on Debt ratio: Focusing on the Moderating Effects of CEOs’ characteristics

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) plays a critical role in setting the strategic direction of an organization and determining its performance. In particular, in the case of public enterprises, CEOs must not only generate business performance but also simultaneously fulfill government policy implementation and public interest objectives. Given this unique environment, the competencies and roles of CEOs in public enterprises become even more critical. While extensive research has been conducted on the impact of employee job fit on job performance, relatively few studies have examined job fit at the CEO level. This study aims to understand the impact of CEO characteristics on organizational performance through the lens of “complementary fit,” which integrates the CEO’s cognitive processes, behavioral mechanisms, and environmental factors, including industry and organizational characteristics. Furthermore, we introduce CEO-related factors such as experience, knowledge, and professional background as moderating variables to conduct an in-depth analysis of the relationship between person-job fit and debt ratio, a key performance indicator of public enterprises. To achieve this, we assessed the person-job fit of 89 CEOs across 36 public enterprises and analyzed its relationship with the debt ratio growth rate, a representative performance indicator of public enterprises. The results reveal that CEO’ person-job fit has a significant negative effect on the debt ratio, indicating that higher fit leads to reduced debt ratio growth. Additionally, the moderating effect analysis shows that when the CEO has prior “organizational management experience” and comes from a “private sector background,” the negative relationship between person-job fit and debt ratio growth is strengthened. From an academic perspective, this study contributes to the extension of CEO theories by incorporating job fit theory, thereby enhancing the empirical validity of theoretical explanations. From a practical standpoint, this research highlights the importance of selecting CEOs with appropriate job fit for improved performance and offers insights into CEO selection and development strategies to enhance public enterprise management outcomes.