Existing research has documented the role that CEOs, and especially CEO regulatory focus, play in shaping firm strategy. Yet, the impact of CEOs is constrained by that of the other executives in the firm, and the strategic leadership literature has repeatedly called for more research that...

Our paper examines two critical members in the top management “subteam” – CEO and CFO – in firms' merger and acquisition (M&A) decision. We propose a concept of CEO-CFO relative optimism, measured by CEO's optimism relative to CFO's pessimism, to capture the subteam's collective...