Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how chief executive officer (CEO) gender relates to financial performance in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in a Latin American emerging economy like Chile. Design/methodology/approach The authors apply a questionnaire on a sample of 188 SMEs in Chile in 2017. The authors apply multiple ordinary least squares regression models to test the effects of CEO gender on SME performance using the industry location indicators to account for unobserved heterogeneity in the sample. As a robustness test the authors use hierarchical regression analysis. Findings The authors find a positive relationship between the presence of female CEOs and firm performance. Then, when probing whether the sociodemographic characteristics of the CEO are related to firm performance or moderate the gender-performance relationship, the authors do not find statistically significant evidence that these types of characteristics affect the performance of SMEs. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present study is the first to investigate the relationship between CEO gender and financial performance of SMEs in an emerging Latin American economy. The study contributes to the general literature by reporting comparable evidence with studies in developed economies.

PurposeIn this paper the authors study how sociodemographic characteristics and personality traits of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) impact financial performance in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in an emerging economy such as Chile.Design/methodology/approachThe authors applied a questionnaire to 185 Chilean SME CEOs during 2017 concerning sociodemographic characteristics (gender, age, experience and marital status), personality traits (extraversion, responsibility, openness to experience, agreeableness, and neuroticism) and firm characteristics.FindingsThe authors find that some sociodemographic characteristics (gender and age) significantly impact SME performance. The authors find no significant connection between personality traits and firm performance.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the business literature by investigating how sociodemographic variables and personality traits of the CEO are related to SME financial performance; by providing new evidence on the relationship between CEO characteristics and firm performance, mostly centered on developed economies, in the context of an emerging economy; and allowing for a better understanding of how CEO decisions impact firm performance.