The Impact of Leadership Characteristics on Corporate Performance

We identify three attributes of a firm that exert significant positive impact on stock return performance of companies. Specifically, quality of management, financial soundness and quality of products/services indicators are critical for successful financial performance. We then discuss the leadership characteristics that are necessary to positively affect these attributes. We believe this information provides insights into the type of leadership characteristics that result in improved financial performance. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.