Does concern about appearance impact firm performance? A study of the Portuguese case

Appearance is not just how individuals are perceived by others, but also how they are perceived by themselves, in a so-called self-assessed appearance. It goes beyond just physical aspects, as it also can be reflected in and by someone's behaviors. These behaviors can be impacted by circumstances that correspond to cultural, biological, and socio aspects. How an individual assesses its concern towards its self-appearance depends on its level of self-esteem, where is assumed that higher levels of self-esteem results in lower levels of concern for appearance. The pressure on how a person appears can also differ amongst gender, management level, and income level. The objective of the research was to see if these differences in concern towards appearance could impact the firm performance both subjectively (measured by a self-perception scale) and objectively (measured by ROA). The results pointed to a non-significant relationship between self-assessed appearance and firm performance. However, it confirmed that females are more concerned about appearance than males and that top managers are less concerned than middle managers, forming an interesting study that can also be related to the phenomenon of beauty premium and the Upper Echelons Theory.