The average term in office of South Korean CEOs is 2.63 years, shorter than the minimum three years endorsed by the country's commercial law, a finding by a local corporate research firm showed Wednesday.
The report was compiled by tracking the tenures of 576 CEOs at listed companies belonging to the country's 30 largest conglomerates from 2000 onwards, CEO Score said. The results exclude chief executives who actually run the conglomerate or are family members of these tycoons.
The data showed that 367, or 63.7 percent of the total, stepped down in less than three years, with 102, or 17.7 percent, staying on for less than a year.
CEOs at Hyosung Group had the shortest term, 17 of them staying on the job for an average of 1.7 years during the measured period.
Mirae Asset and CJ had 1.79 and 1.97 years, each.
Others such as Kolon, Hyundai, KT, GS, POSCO, Doosan, Kumho Asiana and Dongbu had CEOs staying for less than 2.6 years on average.
Among the top five family-run conglomerates, called chaebol, LG Group affiliates kept their CEOs for relatively long at 3.94 years, while numbers for others stood at less than 2.8 years.
Samsung Group affiliate CEOs had an average tenure of 2.66 years, with Hyundai Motor Group standing at 2.26 years. SK and Lotte kept their CEOs at the helm for 2.76 and 2.64 years, respectively.
At the other end of the spectrum, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co.'s presidents stayed on for 5.34 years. Next were Dongkuk Steel Mill's 3.98 years, and Hanjin and Shinsegae groups with 3.38 years and 3.35 years.
The latest data showed that 82.4 percent of top management at Hyosung failed to stay in office for over three years, with 79.2 percent of CEOs at Hyundai Motor also failing to hit the mark.