CEO age and gender and the comparability of financial reports in family and nonfamily firms: evidence from emerging markets

Using upper echelons theory and socio-emotional wealth theory as a lens, we develop hypotheses about the influence of demographic characteristics of chief executive officers (CEOs) (age and gender differences) on financial statement comparability, and how ownership identity shapes these associations in emerging markets. We examine these hypotheses by applying fixed-effects regression to archival data of public firms in seven emerging markets from 2014 to 2024. The results show that both CEO age and female CEOs are associated with higher levels of comparability. Most saliently, these associations are stronger when family ownership is controlling. These findings have implications for corporate governance and regulation: they suggest that strategically appointing and monitoring CEOs can increase comparability and improve market transparency in emerging markets. Two significant research gaps in accounting research, in general and in financial comparability in particular, are thereby addressed by this research: financial comparability in emerging markets and the effect of CEOs’ demographic characteristics. Hence, this research makes significant contributions to financial comparability and to the study of CEOs’ characteristics in emerging markets.