Cracking the CEO's Brain on Risk: Exploring the Interplay between CEO Cognition and Affect Intensity in Organizational Decision-making and its Outcomes

Prior work has suggested that individual decision-making is influenced by the emotions and cognition of the decision-maker. Within the firm context, the chief executive officer (CEO) is required to make many decisions that will meaningfully impact the firm. However, little is known about how CEO emotions and cognition influence not only firm decision-making but also the performance consequences of those decisions. Within this chapter, the authors conceptually explore (1) how CEO affect intensity moderates the relationship between performance below aspirations and risk-taking; and (2) how CEO cognitive complexity determines the directional effect of the risk-performance relationship.