Are powerful chief executive officers (CEOs) more effective in responding to pressure from the economic environment? Concentrating decision‐making power may facilitate rapid decision making; however, the quality of decision making may be compromised, with severe consequences for the firm if a powerful CEO is less likely to receive independent advice or to have her decisions scrutinized. We empirically investigate the performance of firms with powerful CEOs when industry conditions deteriorate. We focus on industry downturns as these represent an exogenous shock to a firm's environment and on settings in which CEO power and access to quality information is likely more consequential: innovative firms, firms with relatively little related‐industry board expertise, firms operating in competitive industries, and firms operating in industries characterized by relatively greater managerial discretion. In each of these settings we find powerful CEOs perform significantly worse than other CEOs, suggesting contexts in which centralized decision making is potentially of greater concern.

We examine the glass cliff proposition that female CEOs receive more scrutiny than male CEOs, by investigating whether CEO gender is related to threats from activist investors in public firms. Activist investors are extraorganizational stakeholders who, when dissatisfied with some aspect of the way the firm is being managed, seek to change the strategy or operations of the firm. Although some have argued that women will be viewed more favorably than men in top leadership positions (so-called "female leadership" advantage logic), we build on role congruity theory to hypothesize that female CEOs are significantly more likely than male CEOs to come under threat from activist investors. Results support our predictions, suggesting that female CEOs may face additional challenges not faced by male CEOs. Practical implications and directions for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

CEO power seems to be a double-edged sword: Agency-theoretic research views CEO power as ultimately detrimental to the firm, whereas the strategic leadership literature highlights the instrumental role of CEO power in getting things done. These competing perspectives motivate a lively debate in the organizational literature on the performance consequences of CEO power. To extend this line of inquiry, we examine the CEO power-firm performance relation during industry turmoil and delve into the role of three critical situational exigencies-managerial discretion, market competitiveness, and technological innovativeness. Predictions are tested on publicly traded Standard & Poor's (S&P) 1500 firms in the United States using archival data over 20 years. Implications for further research and practice are discussed.

Effects of increasing nitrogen concentration on the structure of carbon nitride films deposited by ion beam assisted deposition

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