Business World

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Jan 8, 1998

Sibling CEO rivalry

NEW YORK (AP) -- A child's place in the birth order of his or her family may determine whether he or she becomes a CEO in later life, finds Aubin International, an executive recruitment firm. The company, which along with Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher Frank Sulloway surveyed nearly 700 executives around the world, found that the eldest in the family was twice as likely as younger siblings to become a chief executive, president or vice president of a company. But they also tend to be more conservative than younger siblings, who the researchers found are more likely to support radical change in a company than those executives who were the eldest children.