Top Leadership and Corporate Financial Decision Making

Corporate financial decisions reflect the resources available to a firm and the judgment of its leaders. This narrative review examines how chief executive officers, senior management teams, and boards shape investment, financing, and financial resilience. It brings together international research on managerial experience, behavioral biases, founder leadership, ownership, and governance. The evidence suggests that executives influence financial policy, although the consequences depend on their incentives, the firm's needs, and its institutional setting. Studies of U.S. utilities associate founder leadership with distinctive financial policies and stronger measures of solvency. Research on Bangladeshi manufacturing firms documents financing patterns and performance associations without directly testing leadership effects. Across these settings, borrowing and financial caution need to be assessed against investment needs and the firm's capacity to meet its obligations. We argue that assessments of financial leadership should consider whether decisions fit the business and how their consequences unfold over time. The review also identifies gaps in causal identification, international comparability, and the measurement of financial resilience.