> the compound annual return of the respondent group is 8.97% greater than the non-respondent companies.
That's actually interesting, because I could easily explain away the opposite result: CEOs who waste their time responding to personal letters aren't focused on improving company performance. For example, there's some potential negative correlation between time spent playing golf and company performance [1].
Granted, even if this were statistically significant you can think of explanations why it makes sense: "These CEOs have thought so deeply about their business that responding to these letters is trivial", or "Being forced to answer these questions is beneficial for the CEOs business acumen".
Of course the most likely explanation is that the correlation is just spurious and the two things are unrelated.
That's actually interesting, because I could easily explain away the opposite result: CEOs who waste their time responding to personal letters aren't focused on improving company performance. For example, there's some potential negative correlation between time spent playing golf and company performance [1].
Granted, even if this were statistically significant you can think of explanations why it makes sense: "These CEOs have thought so deeply about their business that responding to these letters is trivial", or "Being forced to answer these questions is beneficial for the CEOs business acumen".
Of course the most likely explanation is that the correlation is just spurious and the two things are unrelated.
Still, would be an interesting study!
1: http://www.businessinsider.com/ceo-golf-rounds-indicate-poor...