Think Before You Speak: Sensemaking and Sensegiving in New CEOs’ Strategic Communications with the Capital Market

We extend research on strategic communication by introducing a theoretical model of how newly appointed CEOs engage in sensemaking and sensegiving with the capital market through their first communication of strategic priorities. We conceptualize strategic topic novelty, the distinctiveness of the topics emphasized relative to the predecessors’, as an observable dimension of new CEOs’ priorities that reflects how they reconcile their desire to establish a unique vision with the need to legitimize their appointment. Our theory suggests that new CEOs draw on situational cues, particularly the nature of the succession (dismissal vs. routine) and the initial market reaction to their appointment, when determining how much novelty to introduce. Specifically, we propose that new CEOs communicate higher strategic topic novelty following dismissals and that this relationship may be strengthened by positive market reactions to their appointment and weakened by negative market responses. We further expect that the capital market responds more favorably to strategic topic novelty following dismissals. Applying textual analysis of new CEOs’ communication in earnings calls from 2004 to 2018, we find a positive relationship between dismissals and strategic topic novelty, which is weaker for more negative market reactions to the new CEO’s announcement. We also find more positive capital market reactions to strategic topic novelty following dismissals. Our findings advance understanding of how new CEOs approach their role by integrating sensemaking with sensegiving in research on CEO communication and highlight how new CEOs asymmetrically adjust novelty in response to positive versus negative market reactions.