Abstract
This study aims to combine gender factor and CEO succession. The question is raised on the basis of relative theories and literatures: What’s the relationship between the gender of CEO successor and firm performance? In order to answer this question, the article analyzes data from 4338 CEO successions in companies listed in China Stock Exchanges from 2001 to 2016. The article uses Propensity Score Estimation for multiple treatments to demonstrate different gender groups in CEO succession (male-to-male, male-to-female, female-to-male, female-to-female). We propose that it is CEO succession with different gender instead of female successor that hurts firm performance. We also find that female successor’s power can weaken the negative impact of CEO succession on firm performance. The results also show that state-owned nature can weaken the negative relation between female-male CEO succession and firm performance.