CEO gender and cybersecurity: The role of female CEOs in mitigating data breach risks

IF 4.1 3区管理学 Q2 BUSINESS

International Journal of Accounting Information Systems Pub Date : 2025-04-22 DOI:10.1016/j.accinf.2025.100746

Liang Sun

{"title":"CEO gender and cybersecurity: The role of female CEOs in mitigating data breach risks","authors":"Liang Sun","doi":"10.1016/j.accinf.2025.100746","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>While cybersecurity is an important concern and CEOs play a crucial role in managing cybersecurity risks, evidence on how CEO characteristics influence data breach incidents is limited. Motivated by the increasing frequency and severity of data breaches, this study investigates how CEO gender affects firms’ likelihood of experiencing a data breach. The findings show that firms led by female CEOs are less likely to experience breaches. This association remains robust after matching on breach likelihood and correcting for selection bias. Cross-sectional analyses show that the effect of female CEOs on reducing data breach likelihood is more pronounced in poorly governed firms and in firms lacking IT expertise among top executives. Further investigation suggest that enhanced IT governance is a mechanism through which female CEOs reduce firm’s data breach likelihood. Overall, my findings reveal how CEO characteristics influence firms’ cybersecurity outcomes and complement the literature on information security and gender diversity in corporate leadership.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47170,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Accounting Information Systems","volume":"56 ","pages":"Article 100746"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1000,"publicationDate":"2025-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Journal of Accounting Information Systems","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1467089525000223","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"BUSINESS","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

While cybersecurity is an important concern and CEOs play a crucial role in managing cybersecurity risks, evidence on how CEO characteristics influence data breach incidents is limited. Motivated by the increasing frequency and severity of data breaches, this study investigates how CEO gender affects firms’ likelihood of experiencing a data breach. The findings show that firms led by female CEOs are less likely to experience breaches. This association remains robust after matching on breach likelihood and correcting for selection bias. Cross-sectional analyses show that the effect of female CEOs on reducing data breach likelihood is more pronounced in poorly governed firms and in firms lacking IT expertise among top executives. Further investigation suggest that enhanced IT governance is a mechanism through which female CEOs reduce firm’s data breach likelihood. Overall, my findings reveal how CEO characteristics influence firms’ cybersecurity outcomes and complement the literature on information security and gender diversity in corporate leadership.

查看原文本刊更多论文

CEO性别与网络安全：女性CEO在降低数据泄露风险中的作用

虽然网络安全是一个重要问题，CEO在管理网络安全风险方面发挥着至关重要的作用，但关于CEO特征如何影响数据泄露事件的证据有限。由于数据泄露的频率和严重程度日益增加，本研究调查了CEO性别如何影响公司经历数据泄露的可能性。调查结果显示，由女性首席执行官领导的公司遭遇数据泄露的可能性较小。在匹配违约可能性和纠正选择偏差后，这种关联仍然是稳健的。横断面分析表明，在管理不善的公司和高管中缺乏IT专业知识的公司中，女性首席执行官对降低数据泄露可能性的影响更为明显。进一步的调查表明，加强IT治理是女性ceo降低公司数据泄露可能性的一种机制。总体而言，我的研究结果揭示了CEO特征如何影响公司的网络安全结果，并补充了关于信息安全和企业领导层性别多样性的文献。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

International Journal of Accounting Information Systems Multiple-

CiteScore

9.00

自引率

6.50%

发文量

期刊介绍： The International Journal of Accounting Information Systems will publish thoughtful, well developed articles that examine the rapidly evolving relationship between accounting and information technology. Articles may range from empirical to analytical, from practice-based to the development of new techniques, but must be related to problems facing the integration of accounting and information technology. The journal will address (but will not limit itself to) the following specific issues: control and auditability of information systems; management of information technology; artificial intelligence research in accounting; development issues in accounting and information systems; human factors issues related to information technology; development of theories related to information technology; methodological issues in information technology research; information systems validation; human–computer interaction research in accounting information systems. The journal welcomes and encourages articles from both practitioners and academicians.