A Changing of the Guard: Executive and Director Turnover Following Corporate Financial Restatements

Using event history analysis, we found that CEOs and CFOs of firms filing a material financial restatement were more than twice as likely to exit their firms as their counterparts in a matched sample. Directors and audit committee members were approximately 70 percent more likely to exit in restatement firms. The magnitude, ubiquity, and temporal proximity of executive and director turnover following a restatement indicate that such events pose a serious threat to organizational legitimacy, independent of firm performance. Restatements therefore provide an important and unique context for studying the accountability of strategic leaders for organizational crises.