Finance

Emerging markets

Business

Investment (military)

Investment decisions

Strategic management

Biology

Politics

Behavioral economics

Nexus (standard)

Marketing

Political science

Embedded system

Econometrics

Paleontology

Economics

Stock exchange

Context (archaeology)

Capital investment

Computer science

Upper echelons

Panel data

Managerial and Decision Economics

The study examines the role of a CEO in enhancing a firm's performance through the mediating effect of investment decisions in the emerging economy of Pakistan. Distinctly, fixed‐effects panel regression method is employed to examine the said nexus of nonfinancial firms listed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange. It is empirically unearthed that CEO attributes, namely, age, tenure, ownership, financial education, and career experience, are positively related to firm performance in general and capital investment decisions in particular. Second, capital investment decisions partially and significantly mediate the nexus between CEO attributes and firm performance with few exceptions that confirm the theoretical implications of upper echelons theory in an emerging economy context.

CEO attributes, investment decisions, and firm performance: New insights from upper echelons theory