The puzzle of left-handedness: Evidence from corporate innovation

Left-handers represent a notable portion of the global population, yet their characteristics remain somewhat enigmatic. One key question is whether they are inherently more creative than their non-left-handed counterparts. Our study addresses this question by examining how firm innovation varies with the handedness of their CEOs. Using a novel sample of left-handed CEOs, we find that they tend to have greater innovation success than their counterparts. Using forced turnover as an exogenous shock, we conduct a CEO handedness change analysis and find that firms transitioning from a right-handed to a left-handed CEO tend to have more patents and citations, but not vice versa. We also identify a possible mechanism for this effect: left-handed CEOs tend to hire more immigrant inventors or serve as inventors themselves, which likely enhances the firm’s innovation output. Overall, our study highlights CEO handedness as an observable personal characteristic that could serve as a predictor of a firm’ creativity.