Purpose – The current study aims to investigate the relationship between relative performance and change manager in Iran. Design/methodology/approach – For this study, the reasons for CEO change and the contributing factors to performance were defined based on the industry type. A systematic elimination approach is applied to select the study sample among listed companies on the Tehran Stock Exchange during 2012–2016. Finally, a 390 firm-year population was tested using multiple regression. Findings – The results of hypothesis testing indicate that the possibility of managerial change is less likely after a positive return of the market performance. Moreover, hypothesis testing results reveal that peer firms and specific-firm performance do not contribute to managerial change. The findings also demonstrate that systematic risk has a negative impact on managerial change, whereas unsystematic risks do not significantly play a part in managerial change. Originality/value – As the present study is the pioneer study on the impact of managerial change factors on Iranian firms’ relative performance, the findings of this study can contribute to the realm of this study and the related literature.

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