Upper echelons (UE) research in Asian contexts has been burgeoning. Yet, extant theorizing about ... more Upper echelons (UE) research in Asian contexts has been burgeoning. Yet, extant theorizing about the role and impact of top managers in Asia has largely relied on Western assumptions underlying the...
Supplemental material, Online_Supplement for The Curse of Extremes: Generalist Career Experience ... more Supplemental material, Online_Supplement for The Curse of Extremes: Generalist Career Experience and CEO Initial Compensation by Philipp E.M. Mueller, Dimitrios Georgakakis, Peder Greve, Simon Peck and Winfried Ruigrok in Journal of Management
Research indicates that the impact of TMT faultlines on firm performance is equivocal. We address... more Research indicates that the impact of TMT faultlines on firm performance is equivocal. We address this issue by emphasizing the moderating role of the CEO. Drawing on the categorization-elaboration model (CEM) and the upper echelons perspective, we propose that CEOs with diverse career experience and shared team tenure with other executives are better equipped to reduce the self-categorization costs of TMT faultlines and enhance information processing and performance benefits. Longitudinal data from an unbalanced panel dataset of 109 large European firms between 2005 and 2009 (390 firm-year observations) shows that experience-based TMT faultlines have more detrimental effects on firm performance than socio-demographic TMT faultlines. Our results also demonstrate that CEOs` background characteristics do play a key role in minimizing the severe performance consequences of experience-based TMT subgroups. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed together with future research directions.
On the one hand, national identity is not a major driver of business performance: successful glob... more On the one hand, national identity is not a major driver of business performance: successful global companies come from a variety of countries, and no nationality dominates across sectors. The car industry used to be dominated by US companies, but now Detroit is fighting for its life against German, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese competitors. In pharmaceuticals, Swiss (Hoffman-Laroche, Novartis) and French (Sanofi-Aventis) competitors are outperforming major US ones (Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly). In consumer foods, ...
The lack of mobility in the international executive labour market proves that where senior manage... more The lack of mobility in the international executive labour market proves that where senior management is concerned nationality still matters a great deal.
How firms expand beyond their home country is one of the most fundamental questions in internatio... more How firms expand beyond their home country is one of the most fundamental questions in international business. Drawing on agency theory and taking into account particularities of the Indian study sample and context, we find that board monitoring of the TMT, which impacts executives' latitude of action, moderates the effects of strategic decision-making (SDM) and rational choice (RC) models on firms' market entry mode decisions. In the SDM model, the link between TMT international experience and a preference for lower control entry modes is stronger in environments with low TMT monitoring. In the RC model, the association between prior firm multinational experience and preference for high control entry modes is stronger in environments with high TMT monitoring. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of these findings in the context of internationalizing multinational enterprises from emerging markets.
This paper contributes to a better understanding of the effects of experiential diversity in team... more This paper contributes to a better understanding of the effects of experiential diversity in teams. Specifically, the link between diversity in team members' international experience backgrounds and team performance is examined from an information processing perspective. This paper addresses the conditions under which teams optimize the benefits of a greater pool of knowledge and perspectives at their disposal. A set of four hypotheses is developed and tested on a longitudinal dataset drawn from professional soccer teams in the German Bundesliga over a seven-year period. Findings show that a diverse international experience base is positively associated with team performance. This relationship is positively moderated by indicators of experiential team composition and managerial tenure. Specifically, performance gains of increasing international experience diversity are larger the more a team consists of members experienced in high quality settings, a team consists of members wit...
This paper assesses the corporate governance related antecedents of nomination committee adoption... more This paper assesses the corporate governance related antecedents of nomination committee adoption, and the impact of nomination committees' existence and their composition on board independence and board demographic diversity. We conducted a longitudinal study of board composition amongst 210 Swiss public companies from January 2001 through December 2003, a period during which the Swiss (Stock) Exchange introduced new corporate governance related disclosure guidelines. We find firms with nomination committees are more likely to have higher number of independent and foreign directors, but not more likely to have higher number of female board members. Further, the existence of nomination committees is associated with a higher degree of nationality diversity but is not related to board educational diversity. We also find that nomination committee composition matters in the nomination of independent and foreign, but not of female directors. Our results suggest that understanding dif...
As firms internationalise, they face increasingly complex environments and must learn to deal wit... more As firms internationalise, they face increasingly complex environments and must learn to deal with the challenges that go along with the establishment of foreign operations. Appointing foreign directors at board and top management team level is one way of handling such challenges, as this enables the company to draw upon a larger knowledge-base at the top of the organisation and extends the company's international business networks. A sample of 118 companies from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden was employed in order to test whether higher levels of internationalisation increases the likelihood of appointing foreigners board and top management level. The effects of foreign ownership, government interest, and large-scale merger activity were also studied. Results show broad support for the hypothesised relationships between internationalisation indicators and composition of boards and top management teams.
This paper explores the rise of an international market for top management team members in Europe... more This paper explores the rise of an international market for top management team members in Europe, identifying patterns and trends, and exploring the antecedents to the emergence of TMT nationality diversity. We analyse a panel dataset of large European non-financial firms based in Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. This dataset consists of more than 7000 individual observations of executives' nationalities at the year-ends of 2005, 2004, 2002, and 2000. We find that over this period Swiss, Dutch, and Finnish firms stepped up the hiring of foreign top executives, while Danish and Norwegian firms employed a lower percentage of foreign top managers. We identify some key antecedents to top management team internationalisation, most notably firms' executive compensation and foreign ownership levels.
Research on the relationship between top management team (TMT) faultlines and firm performance ha... more Research on the relationship between top management team (TMT) faultlines and firm performance has been equivocal, mainly because the underlying mechanisms that drive this relationship remain largely unexplored. In this study we look at the CEO-TMT interface as a key intervening mechanism at the strategic leadership context that affects the performance implications of knowledge-based TMT faultlines. Analyzing data from 101 large international firms over the period 2005-2009, we find that the performance benefits of knowledge-based subgroups occur when the leader of the TMT (i.e., the CEO): (a) socio-demographically resembles incumbent executives, (b) possesses a diverse career background, and (c) shares common socialization experience with other TMT members. Overall, our research reveals that different dimensions of the CEO-TMT interface play a pivotal role in determining the performance effects of knowledge-based TMT faultlines. Implications for upper echelons theory and strategic ...
Scant attention has been devoted to team international experience and firm performance. This pape... more Scant attention has been devoted to team international experience and firm performance. This paper offers a novel perspective by focusing on the relationship between top management team international experience and performance to study the moderating effect of the alignment of team international experience and firm international presence. Leveraging a dataset of Dutch and Swiss international companies over the five-year period from 2008-2012, for a total of 219 firm-year combinations, we found that firm performance has a U-shaped relationship with top management team international experience and changes concavity when the moderating effect of region TMT-firm match is included. These findings allow for a better understanding of international experience team dynamics and shed new light on the performance effects of international experience. Managerial and team diversity implications are discussed, together with opportunities for future research.
In this study, we outline how top management team (TMT) nepotism may contribute to firm growth in... more In this study, we outline how top management team (TMT) nepotism may contribute to firm growth in the context of early-stage economic and institutional development. Based on a combination of resour...
This paper focuses on the emergence of demographic diversity at the top management team level. We... more This paper focuses on the emergence of demographic diversity at the top management team level. We argue that firms consider the pre-appointment socialization context of executive candidates and are more likely to appoint dissimilar executives who have previously worked with the organization, rather than to hire dissimilar applicants externally. Data from executive appointments during 2005-2009 at several hundred large European companies support our hypothesis that firms mitigate the perceived risk of increasing top management team diversity by hiring dissimilar executives from inside the organization. The study extends prior research on how top management team diversity emerges in organizations by highlighting the importance of the pre-appointment socialization context of executive candidates.
Upper echelons (UE) research in Asian contexts has been burgeoning. Yet, extant theorizing about ... more Upper echelons (UE) research in Asian contexts has been burgeoning. Yet, extant theorizing about the role and impact of top managers in Asia has largely relied on Western assumptions underlying the...
Supplemental material, Online_Supplement for The Curse of Extremes: Generalist Career Experience ... more Supplemental material, Online_Supplement for The Curse of Extremes: Generalist Career Experience and CEO Initial Compensation by Philipp E.M. Mueller, Dimitrios Georgakakis, Peder Greve, Simon Peck and Winfried Ruigrok in Journal of Management
Research indicates that the impact of TMT faultlines on firm performance is equivocal. We address... more Research indicates that the impact of TMT faultlines on firm performance is equivocal. We address this issue by emphasizing the moderating role of the CEO. Drawing on the categorization-elaboration model (CEM) and the upper echelons perspective, we propose that CEOs with diverse career experience and shared team tenure with other executives are better equipped to reduce the self-categorization costs of TMT faultlines and enhance information processing and performance benefits. Longitudinal data from an unbalanced panel dataset of 109 large European firms between 2005 and 2009 (390 firm-year observations) shows that experience-based TMT faultlines have more detrimental effects on firm performance than socio-demographic TMT faultlines. Our results also demonstrate that CEOs` background characteristics do play a key role in minimizing the severe performance consequences of experience-based TMT subgroups. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed together with future research directions.
On the one hand, national identity is not a major driver of business performance: successful glob... more On the one hand, national identity is not a major driver of business performance: successful global companies come from a variety of countries, and no nationality dominates across sectors. The car industry used to be dominated by US companies, but now Detroit is fighting for its life against German, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese competitors. In pharmaceuticals, Swiss (Hoffman-Laroche, Novartis) and French (Sanofi-Aventis) competitors are outperforming major US ones (Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly). In consumer foods, ...
The lack of mobility in the international executive labour market proves that where senior manage... more The lack of mobility in the international executive labour market proves that where senior management is concerned nationality still matters a great deal.
How firms expand beyond their home country is one of the most fundamental questions in internatio... more How firms expand beyond their home country is one of the most fundamental questions in international business. Drawing on agency theory and taking into account particularities of the Indian study sample and context, we find that board monitoring of the TMT, which impacts executives' latitude of action, moderates the effects of strategic decision-making (SDM) and rational choice (RC) models on firms' market entry mode decisions. In the SDM model, the link between TMT international experience and a preference for lower control entry modes is stronger in environments with low TMT monitoring. In the RC model, the association between prior firm multinational experience and preference for high control entry modes is stronger in environments with high TMT monitoring. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of these findings in the context of internationalizing multinational enterprises from emerging markets.
This paper contributes to a better understanding of the effects of experiential diversity in team... more This paper contributes to a better understanding of the effects of experiential diversity in teams. Specifically, the link between diversity in team members' international experience backgrounds and team performance is examined from an information processing perspective. This paper addresses the conditions under which teams optimize the benefits of a greater pool of knowledge and perspectives at their disposal. A set of four hypotheses is developed and tested on a longitudinal dataset drawn from professional soccer teams in the German Bundesliga over a seven-year period. Findings show that a diverse international experience base is positively associated with team performance. This relationship is positively moderated by indicators of experiential team composition and managerial tenure. Specifically, performance gains of increasing international experience diversity are larger the more a team consists of members experienced in high quality settings, a team consists of members wit...
This paper assesses the corporate governance related antecedents of nomination committee adoption... more This paper assesses the corporate governance related antecedents of nomination committee adoption, and the impact of nomination committees' existence and their composition on board independence and board demographic diversity. We conducted a longitudinal study of board composition amongst 210 Swiss public companies from January 2001 through December 2003, a period during which the Swiss (Stock) Exchange introduced new corporate governance related disclosure guidelines. We find firms with nomination committees are more likely to have higher number of independent and foreign directors, but not more likely to have higher number of female board members. Further, the existence of nomination committees is associated with a higher degree of nationality diversity but is not related to board educational diversity. We also find that nomination committee composition matters in the nomination of independent and foreign, but not of female directors. Our results suggest that understanding dif...
As firms internationalise, they face increasingly complex environments and must learn to deal wit... more As firms internationalise, they face increasingly complex environments and must learn to deal with the challenges that go along with the establishment of foreign operations. Appointing foreign directors at board and top management team level is one way of handling such challenges, as this enables the company to draw upon a larger knowledge-base at the top of the organisation and extends the company's international business networks. A sample of 118 companies from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden was employed in order to test whether higher levels of internationalisation increases the likelihood of appointing foreigners board and top management level. The effects of foreign ownership, government interest, and large-scale merger activity were also studied. Results show broad support for the hypothesised relationships between internationalisation indicators and composition of boards and top management teams.
This paper explores the rise of an international market for top management team members in Europe... more This paper explores the rise of an international market for top management team members in Europe, identifying patterns and trends, and exploring the antecedents to the emergence of TMT nationality diversity. We analyse a panel dataset of large European non-financial firms based in Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. This dataset consists of more than 7000 individual observations of executives' nationalities at the year-ends of 2005, 2004, 2002, and 2000. We find that over this period Swiss, Dutch, and Finnish firms stepped up the hiring of foreign top executives, while Danish and Norwegian firms employed a lower percentage of foreign top managers. We identify some key antecedents to top management team internationalisation, most notably firms' executive compensation and foreign ownership levels.
Research on the relationship between top management team (TMT) faultlines and firm performance ha... more Research on the relationship between top management team (TMT) faultlines and firm performance has been equivocal, mainly because the underlying mechanisms that drive this relationship remain largely unexplored. In this study we look at the CEO-TMT interface as a key intervening mechanism at the strategic leadership context that affects the performance implications of knowledge-based TMT faultlines. Analyzing data from 101 large international firms over the period 2005-2009, we find that the performance benefits of knowledge-based subgroups occur when the leader of the TMT (i.e., the CEO): (a) socio-demographically resembles incumbent executives, (b) possesses a diverse career background, and (c) shares common socialization experience with other TMT members. Overall, our research reveals that different dimensions of the CEO-TMT interface play a pivotal role in determining the performance effects of knowledge-based TMT faultlines. Implications for upper echelons theory and strategic ...
Scant attention has been devoted to team international experience and firm performance. This pape... more Scant attention has been devoted to team international experience and firm performance. This paper offers a novel perspective by focusing on the relationship between top management team international experience and performance to study the moderating effect of the alignment of team international experience and firm international presence. Leveraging a dataset of Dutch and Swiss international companies over the five-year period from 2008-2012, for a total of 219 firm-year combinations, we found that firm performance has a U-shaped relationship with top management team international experience and changes concavity when the moderating effect of region TMT-firm match is included. These findings allow for a better understanding of international experience team dynamics and shed new light on the performance effects of international experience. Managerial and team diversity implications are discussed, together with opportunities for future research.
In this study, we outline how top management team (TMT) nepotism may contribute to firm growth in... more In this study, we outline how top management team (TMT) nepotism may contribute to firm growth in the context of early-stage economic and institutional development. Based on a combination of resour...
This paper focuses on the emergence of demographic diversity at the top management team level. We... more This paper focuses on the emergence of demographic diversity at the top management team level. We argue that firms consider the pre-appointment socialization context of executive candidates and are more likely to appoint dissimilar executives who have previously worked with the organization, rather than to hire dissimilar applicants externally. Data from executive appointments during 2005-2009 at several hundred large European companies support our hypothesis that firms mitigate the perceived risk of increasing top management team diversity by hiring dissimilar executives from inside the organization. The study extends prior research on how top management team diversity emerges in organizations by highlighting the importance of the pre-appointment socialization context of executive candidates.
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