A study examining how leaders' formative experiences shape organizational culture has been accepted for publication in Management Science. The paper, titled “Spreading the Style: Firm Leaders’ Early Life Experiences and Employees’ Behavior and Performance,” co-authored by Professor Yongxiang Wang (Chair Professor of Finance, Deputy Dean of SAIF) and his collaborators Nan Jia, Rongrong Xie, and Nianhang Xu, explores an unusual historical episode: the influence of Chinese securities executives who spent their adolescence as "sent-down youths" during the Cultural Revolution.
The research demonstrates that chairpersons who experienced rural labor assignments during the Cultural Revolution developed an enduring preference for empirical investigation. This manifests in their organizations through increased site visits to listed companies and improved accuracy in earnings forecasts by analysts under their leadership. The findings suggest that a leader's operational style, rooted in early experiences, permeates throughout an organization's practices.
Professor Wang, who previously held tenure at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business, has published extensively across empirical corporate finance, political economy, and organizational economics. His research portfolio includes over twenty articles in leading journals such as the Journal of Political Economy, American Economic Review, and Review of Financial Studies. He serves as Associate Editor for several prestigious publications and his work has been featured in Science, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist.
