Presenter: Charline Uhr, AU

Title: If you build it, will they come? Empirical evidence from the introduction of fee-only advice

Abstract: We exploit a real-world setting at a German brokerage where first-time users of financial advice are forced to make an informed choice between fee-only advice and commission-based advice. The two schemes and advisory recommendations are identical except for pricing. Heterogeneity in advisors’ quality to explain the schemes is muted, which makes advisor effects jointly insignificant. We find that only one in five clients choose fee-only advice. Even among clients having substantial cost savings of choosing fee-only advice, less than half pick it. The results are not driven by a lack of information, status-quo bias, attention bias or self-selection. Only educational attainment, age, and having a disposition effect contribute to explaining the reluctance to opt for fee-only advice.

Presenter: Tom Aabo, AU

Title: Give me uncertainty, and I will shine: CEO narcissism and corporate performance

Abstract: CEO narcissism is an established fact in the corporate world. We argue that uncertainty moderates the relationship between CEO narcissism and corporate performance. Thus, we hypothesize the decisiveness and craving for attention of the narcissistic CEO improve corporate performance during periods of high uncertainty, while these features of narcissism are not needed and indeed are disadvantageous during periods of low uncertainty. Our empirical results support our hypothesis. Our findings are important in understanding the context specificity of the advantages and disadvantages of CEO narcissism in an empirical corporate setting and thus important for CEO selection and CEO management.

Organizers: Stefan Hirth and Anders Merrild Posselt