Understanding the causes and consequences of corporate risk-taking has remained a crucial topic for organizational scholars. Using the case of U.S. banks and one dimension of their risk-taking behavior around the 2008 financial crisis, we offer a theory of how the diverse experiences of corporate leaders can shape their risk-taking behavior. Building on the imprinting literature, we theorize how different types of experiences that bank CEOs had in the past interact to shape current risk-taking behavior, resulting in risk moderation under crisis conditions. We focus on two imprinting experiences with particular relevance for bank CEOs’ risk-taking behavior—MBA education and past crisis experience. We argue that the latter played a pronounced role during the crisis because of greater imprint-environment fit. Our analysis using data from 170 large banks between 2001 and 2019 shows that bank CEOs’ firsthand experience of a prior banking crisis not only directly tempered bank risk-taking but also did so indirectly by limiting the risk-taking tendencies of CEOs with an MBA, particularly during the crisis period. Our study contributes to the sociological literature about organizational risk-taking by emphasizing the crucial role of organizational leaders’ biographies and exploring how earlier institutional conditions shape their risk-taking behavior later.

中文翻译：

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我以前见过这样的情况：印记经验和银行首席执行官在危机时期的冒险精神


了解企业冒险的原因和后果一直是组织学者的关键话题。利用美国银行的案例及其在 2008 年金融危机前后的风险承担行为的一个维度，我们提供了一种关于企业领导者的不同经历如何影响其冒险行为的理论。基于印记文献，我们从理论上解释了银行 CEO 过去不同类型的经历如何相互作用以塑造当前的风险承担行为，从而在危机条件下实现风险调节。我们专注于与银行 CEO 的冒险行为特别相关的两种印记经历——MBA 教育和过去的危机经历。我们认为，后者在危机期间发挥了显著作用，因为印记与环境的契合度更高。我们使用 2001 年至 2019 年间 170 家大型银行的数据进行分析表明，银行 CEO 对先前银行业危机的第一手经验不仅直接抑制了银行的冒险行为，而且还通过限制拥有 MBA 学位的 CEO 的风险承担倾向间接地减轻了风险承担能力，尤其是在危机期间。我们的研究通过强调组织领导者传记的关键作用并探索早期的制度条件如何影响他们以后的冒险行为，为有关组织冒险行为的社会学文献做出了贡献。