In unreported results, we find that both within- and between-firm variance in CEO-CFO LSM are significantly related to CFO compensation, indicating that within-firm change in CEO-CFO LSM and between-firm variation in CEO-CFO LSM can predict CFO compensation. In addition, only within-firm variance in CEO-CFO LSM is significantly related to the number of and value of M&As, indicating that only within-firm change in CEO-CFO LSM can predict firm M&A intensity. Within-firm variation captures how changes in CEO-CFO LSM reflect changes in CFOs’ ingratiation intentions. Such variation, we believe, can be mainly driven by CFOs’ differential intentions to ingratiate CEOs within each firm. In contrast, between-firm variation captures cross-sectional differences between CEO-CFO LSM, which can be driven by similar demographic backgrounds between CEOs and CFOs instead of CFOs’ differential attempts to ingratiate CEOs.