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CEO aging and the MNE Internationalization portfolio

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Is old age truly a shipwreck? New research from Dr. Liang (Arthur) Li and his team in the Journal of World Business suggests otherwise.

By studying multinational enterprise CEOs in Japan, one of the world’s most rapidly aging societies, the team identified two fascinating ways aging CEOs adapt their global strategies:

1. Cognitive decline may lead aging MNE CEOs to selectively adjust the internationalization portfolio in a way that reduces the cognitive demands of managing culturally distant host countries;

2. Concurrently, aging CEOs may be more likely to engage with a portfolio involving host countries with weak institutions, which require experience and intuition (traits that tend to grow with age).

These findings challenge the unidimensional conceptualization of CEO aging prevalent in international business research, provide a more nuanced theoretical account of MNE CEO aging, and underscore the managerial aspect of internationalization. Liang Arthur Li, Eddy Ng, Anthony Goerzen & Elie Chrysostome (2026). CEO aging and the MNE internationalization portfolio (external link, opens in new window) . Journal of World Business, 61(4), 101730.

 

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