Impact of Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) in Japanese Firms

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K01649
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 07080:Business administration-related
• Research Institution: Hitotsubashi University
• Principal Investigator: SHINOZAWA Yoshikatsu 一橋大学, 大学院経営管理研究科, 教授 (10897648)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 最高財務責任者 / 実証研究 / 回帰分析 / 制度理論

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The study conducted an empirical statistical analysis of the impact of the presence or absence of a chief financial officer (CFO) on corporate management indicators for all listed companies in the non-financial sector in Japan, using data from 2017 to 2021. The three main achievements of the study are as follows. First, the characteristics of companies with CFOs were identified. Second, the study showed that the presence of a CFO has a positive impact on stock market-related rates of return, while it has no significant impact on financial statement-related rates of return, such as return on total assets and return on equity. The third result is that the study was presented at peer-reviewed national and international conferences. The question-and-answer sessions with the researchers at the conferences where the paper was presented were valuable touchstones for the next stage of the project: submission to an international journal.

Free Research Field

経営学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

CFOの役職自体が日本企業に浸透していないことを背景に、黎明期にある日本のCFO研究分野での本研究の学術的な意義とは、先行研究と異なり多量の経営データで統計的手法を用いて日本のCFOを持つ企業の特性やCFOの影響について実証分析を行ったこと、そして査読付きの国際学術学会で「日本発の数少ないＣＦＯ研究」として発表したことである。

また経営実務の視点からの本研究の研究意義は、CFO職位設置に代表される「米英型経営手法」の日本企業への導入に関して貴重な実証的な洞察を示唆した点であろう。