CEOs’ Online Personality and Their Company’s Business Strategy: Openness to Experience Predicts Diversifying Merger and Acquisition Decisions

Although openness to experience has been argued to drive behaviors associated with exploration and innovation, the expression of openness in business strategy remains understudied. The current study addresses this gap by revealing that the openness perceived from U.S. and Chinese CEOs’ social media predicted their firm’s initiation of diversifying M&As, even after controlling for an extensive set of potential confounds. By replicating our findings across two culturally distinct samples, we highlight the role of openness in corporate strategic decision-making, and the usefulness of social media as a source for personality assessment.