『초록: The growing trend of external CEO hires presents significant challenges to corporations, as incoming CEOs often lack firm-specific knowledge, making the transition period critical for firm performance. We argue that a well-executed CEO handover can mitigate these challenges by facilitating a smooth transfer of knowledge, strategic insight, and organizational understanding. To study how this transition affects firm performance, we examine the value impact of CEO handovers, or overlaps, using two novel measures: the presence and the duration of an overlap between incoming and departing CEOs. We find that both handover measures are positively related to firm value. Moreover, the handover effect increases with the ownership stakes of the departing and incoming CEOs’ and the departing CEO’s career concerns but decreases with a psychological sense of loss affecting the departing CEO. The handover effect is also more pronounced for diversified and R&D-intensive firms, and for firms in risky industries. Shareholders may therefore benefit from the CEO handover process. 』