Impacts of chief marketing officer in product recalls

This paper examines the implications of chief marketing officers (CMOs) when firms experience crisis situations. In the context of product recalls, we analyze CMO impacts from the perspectives of two critical stakeholders—consumers and investors. For consumers, we find that firms with a CMO manage recalls for better consumer protection by issuing recalls earlier and having fewer consumer harm incidents than firms without a CMO. For investors, we find that firm financial value drops significantly more for firms with a CMO than those without a CMO when recall happens. These findings generate a more holistic picture of CMOs in the growing literature on the roles and impacts of marketing leadership. They boost the message that CMOs matter and show the nuanced impacts when firms face crisis.