A prime example Schweitzer and his colleagues cite is the 2004 collapse of a energy-trading company, where managers used financial incentives to motivate salesmen to meet specific revenue goals.
If a multinational bank collapsed and defaulted on its loans from the central bank, making good on any losses on the collateral would be a messy business.
Although a correlation between them leaving and subsequent bad performance at the firm is suggestive, it does not mean that such directors are always jumping off a sinking ship.