“It’s Not the CEOs, It’s Us”: On the Challenges of CEO Research and a Call for Deeper Engagement

Abstract

Much of the upper echelons’ literature presumes that CEOs are unlikely and unwilling to participate in research regarding their roles and decision-making processes. In this opinion piece, we argue that the dearth of research utilizing primary data from the CEO population poses a challenge to the diversity and soundness of scholarship in this field, limiting our own capacity to truly know these crucial informants. Furthermore, we assert that the reluctance of organizational scholars to involve CEOs in their research is rooted in several assumptions that warrant re-evaluation. Drawing from a critical assessment of existing literature and our own experiences, we propose suggestions for effective strategies to engage with CEOs in our research endeavors.