Benefiting from CEO's empowerment of TMTs: Does CEO–TMT dissimilarity matter?

This study examines empowering leadership from an upper echelons perspective by focusing on top management teams (TMTs) and considering the demographic dissimilarities between the CEO and other TMT members. Data from a multisource survey of 129 Chinese firms demonstrate the importance of the fit between the backgrounds of the leader and the TMT members. Although empowerment of TMTs by CEOs predicts superior organizational performance in general, the findings show that this practice is most beneficial when the CEO and the TMT members differ in their informational demographics but have a longer tenure overlap. If either dissimilarity in informational demographics or tenure overlap is lacking, the CEO's empowerment of the TMT has a less positive effect on firm performance. Essentially, a three-way interaction is demonstrated. Introducing boundary conditions for the empowerment of TMTs by CEOs and testing their interactive influence broadens our understanding of how CEO leadership style can affect organizational performance, and refines the guidance for practitioners on TMT management.     

Relationships between Top Management Team Characteristics and International Diversification: an Empirical Investigation*

Drawing on the executive demography and the upper‐echelons perspectives, this paper examines the relationships between top management team (TMT) characteristics (educational level, tenure, age, international experience and functional background) and firm international diversification. The study is based on a sample of 112 relatively large, internationally diversified US‐based firms in the manufacturing sector. Findings indicate that firms with higher levels of international diversification are likely to have TMTs characterized by higher educational level, shorter organizational tenures, younger executives and greater international experience. In addition, findings indicate that the relationships between TMT characteristics and international diversification are more dominant in better‐performing than in lower‐performing firms.     

The role of CEO emotional stability and team heterogeneity in shaping the top management team affective tone and firm performance relationship

In this paper, we aim to bridge the micro-macro divide by addressing continued calls from strategic leadership and affect researchers to examine the black box to consider how CEO characteristics relate to top management team (TMT) affective experiences, and, in turn firm outcomes. We further consider the role of one key contextual factor in this relationship: TMT heterogeneity. We predict that CEO personality, specifically, emotional stability, is positively associated with TMT affective tone. Moreover, we posit that the relationship between TMT affective tone and firm performance depends on TMT task-related heterogeneity, such that positive affective tone benefits firm performance in heterogeneous TMTs, whereas negative affective tone benefits firm performance in homogeneous TMTs. Using a novel methodology that measures key psychological aspects of the CEO and TMT, we examined 50 TMTs from publicly-traded companies to test our predictions. Our findings offer theoretical contributions to the strategic leadership, affect and diversity literatures as well as managerial applications for CEO selection and management and managing diversity in upper echelons.     

Birds of a feather?: Firm sales growth and narcissism in the upper echelons at the CEO-TMT interface

Blending conceptual framing from the CEO-TMT interface literature with upper echelons decision-making theory, we develop a model of the role of CEO narcissism and narcissism in the upper echelons. We argue that narcissistic CEOs tend to have higher narcissism in their Top Management Teams (N-TMTs). In turn, TMTs characterized by narcissism can benefit from positive aspects of narcissism while avoiding its pitfalls; especially when strategic decision speed is slower and behavioral integration is higher. In a field study of 104 TMTs from publicly-listed South Korean firms, we find an association between narcissistic CEOs and N-TMT, and that N-TMT mediates in the indirect, conditional relationship between CEO narcissism and sales growth. We also invoke threshold theory in anticipation that outcomes associated with N-TMT may be nonlinear. In support of our threshold hypothesis, we find a curvilinear relationship between N-TMT and sales growth; and this curvilinear relationship is stronger for a small number of TMTs scoring high on N-TMT (> +2SD), where TMTs’ activities are defined by deliberative integration. The pattern of results we report provides evidence for the importance of accounting for narcissism in the upper echelons as a predictor of sales growth, and key contextual moderators of this relationship.     

Top management team constellations and their implications for strategic decision making

Two major themes in the upper echelon decision making literature are the efficacy of the CEO and the composition of the top management team (TMT). Little research has examined their intersection. This study addresses the call to reveal the social processes within TMTs, by focusing on CEO-TMT member interaction in decision making. Drawing on video ethnographic data of two TMTs, we explore the patterns of interactions between CEOs and TMT members in their strategic decision making meetings. Through an analysis of 20 issue discussions, we identify five “constellations”, a team level construct capturing the core relational dynamics that are created through mutual CEO-TMT member influence during a team's discussion of a strategic issue. We explain how these constellations unfold and their implications for the processes and outcomes of TMT strategic decision making. We then elaborate how our findings contribute to the TMT and upper echelon literatures, as well as our understanding of team politics.     

Economic Liberalization and the Antecedents of Top Management Teams: Evidence From Turkish ‘Big’ Business

There has been an increased interest in the last two decades in top management teams (TMTs) of business firms. Much of the research, however, has been US‐based and concerned primarily with TMT effects on organizational outcomes. The present study aims to expand this literature by examining the antecedents of top team composition in the context of macro‐level economic change in a late‐industrializing country. The post‐1980 trade and market reforms in Turkey provided the empirical setting. Drawing upon the literatures on TMT and chief executive characteristics together with punctuated equilibrium models of change and institutional theory, the article develops the argument that which firm‐level factors affect which attributes of TMT formations varies across the early and late stages of economic liberalization. Results of the empirical investigation of 71 of the largest industrial firms in Turkey broadly supported the hypotheses derived from this premise. In the early stages of economic liberalization the average age and average organizational tenure of TMTs were related to the export orientation of firms, whereas in later stages, firm performance became a major predictor of these team attributes. Educational background characteristics of teams appeared to be under stronger institutional pressures, altering in different ways in the face of macro‐level change.     

国际化战略实施与高层管理团队构成实证研究

利用信息处理理论和高阶梯队理论考察国际化战略实施对高层管理团队特征(年龄、任期、教育水平及其异质性、团队规模等)选择的要求.研究结果表明:企业国际化战略的实施需要拥有某些特定属性的高层管理团队;企业国际化程度越高,要求高层管理团队任期越短、任期异质性越小,而且团队规模和教育水平异质性越大;良好的制度建设和经营管理是确保选择合理的高层管理团队执行国际化战略的重要影响因素.     

Cognitive antecedents of business models: Exploring the link between attention and business model design over time

A firm's ability to conceive performance-enhancing business models (BMs) has become a cornerstone of competitive advantage. There is consensus that external triggers spur such BM change, but the literature has remained silent on the role of internal and cognitive antecedents such as managerial attention. In our inductive case study of four corporate spin-offs, we find that top management teams (TMTs) with a specific set of attention patterns are more likely to develop performance-enhancing BM designs. However, our findings provide evidence that specific attention foci are not sufficient to enhance particular BM designs, as it is also a matter of the intensity of attention. We further find that, over time, TMTs attention patterns shift and cause changes in BM designs. The emergent theoretical framework highlights that attention is an antecedent in explaining BM designs.     

How top management team behavioral integration and behavioral complexity enable organizational ambidexterity: The moderating role of contextual ambidexterity

Little is known about how top management teams (TMTs) make balanced strategic decisions (exploration and exploitation) and spearhead organizational ambidexterity. To address the theoretical call to explore how TMTs can help create ambidexterity, we propose a theoretical model where TMT behavioral integration cultivates behavioral complexity in a TMT that can build organizational ambidexterity. Further, we argue that the relationship between TMT behavioral complexity and organizational ambidexterity is moderated by contextual ambidexterity. Drawing on research in the areas of leadership, TMT, organizational context and ambidexterity, we explore implications for future research.     

Do transformational CEOs always make the difference? The role of TMT feedback seeking behavior

In the present paper, we raise the question whether CEO transformational leadership invariably makes a difference for team performance and change effectiveness. Since in general, CEOs are surrounded by a team of highly influential top managers, we argue that the effectiveness of CEO transformational leadership is contingent on the feedback seeking behavior of their top management team (TMT). Data from 38 TMTs and their CEOs demonstrated that transformational leadership was positively related to both TMT performance and effectiveness of organizational change, but only when the TMT engaged in low levels of feedback seeking behavior. As predicted, there was no relationship between CEO transformational leadership and performance and change effectiveness for teams exhibiting high levels of feedback seeking behavior. These findings suggest that for high-feedback seeking TMTs, organizational results can be achieved without a transformational CEO.     

Fast and rigorous: Configurational determinants of strategic decision-making balance

A longstanding debate in the strategic decision-making literature has focused on whether top management teams (TMTs) can effectively balance speed and comprehensiveness when making important decisions. In our research, we build on early insights and pivot from considering whether TMTs can engage indecision-making that balances these tensions to focus instead on when certain types of TMTs are able to achieve such balance. We employ a novel configurational analytical approach and a theoretical framework built from role theory to examine the CEO-TMT interface in a new way. In so doing, we are able to identify specific CEO-TMT constellations that support decision-making that is both fast and rigorous. Using a unique primary dataset and an abductive, configurational approach grounded in fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), we identify six specific leader-team configurations that each facilitate decision processes characterized by rigorous intra-team debate, meaningful reconciliation of divergent ideas, and fast decision speed (which we describe as strategic decision-making balance). The range of CEO-TMT configurations that emerge from our analyses contribute new theory and findings for the strategic decision-making and interface literatures more broadly, as well as the specific research streams on executive gender, humility, and TMT structure.     

Top management teams within multinational corporations: Effects of cultural heterogeneity

This research examined the relationship of cultural heterogeneity with team and organizational performance, as mediated by selected aspects of group processes. The study was done with top management teams (TMTs) in international subsidiaries of multinational corporations (MNCs). It was found that cultural heterogeneity within the TMT is positively related to both the level of issue-based conflict the team experiences and to TMT performance. The TMT performance and the subsidiary's performance were positively related. Issue-based conflict affected negatively TMT performance but had a positive effect on subsidiary performance. The hypothesis that cultural heterogeneity would be negatively related to TMT cohesion was not supported. The results provide general support for the importance of cultural heterogeneity for the functioning of TMTs and their international subsidiaries.     

All on board? New evidence on board gender diversity from a large panel of European firms

Using a unique database of over 20 million firms over two decades, we examine industry sector and national institution drivers of the prevalence of women directors on supervisory and management boards in both public and private firms across 41 advanced and emerging European economies. We demonstrate that gender board diversity has generally increased, yet women remain rare in both boards of firms in Europe: approximately 70% have no women directors on their supervisory boards, and 60% have no women directors on management boards. We leverage institutional and resource dependency theoretical frameworks to demonstrate that few systematic factors are associated with greater gender diversity for both supervisory and management boards among both private and public firms: the same factor may exhibit a positive correlation to a management board, and a negative correlation to a supervisory board, or vice versa. We interpret these findings as evidence that country-level gender equality and cultural institutions exhibit differentiated correlations with the presence of women directors in management and supervisory boards. We also find little evidence that sector-level competition and innovativeness are systematically associated with the presence of women on either board in either group of firms.     

Top management team diversity and ambidexterity: The contingent role of shared responsibility and CEO cognitive trust

Earlier research has suggested that diversity is a double-edged sword when achieving organizational ambidexterity. While it may contribute to the development of new combinations of exploration and exploitation, it may also lead to disagreements and potential conflict within top management teams (TMTs). To improve our understanding of the effectiveness of diversity in ambidextrous organizations, we develop a synergistic perspective on TMT diversity and examine how two types of diversity – functional and age diversity – affect the achievement of organizational ambidexterity. We also identify shared responsibility and CEO cognitive trust as important contingencies that may complement the effects of diversity within TMTs in terms of resolving potential conflicts and managing tensions between exploration and exploitation effectively. Based on multisource data, our study shows that CEO cognitive trust and shared responsibility moderate the relationship between different types of diversity and ambidexterity. Our study has important implications for research on organizational ambidexterity, diversity, and senior leadership.     

我国上市公司高管特征与企业绩效的实证研究

由于中国的转型经济呈现的是一种不同于西方完善市场经济的特殊制度环境,在这种条件下经营的企业之业绩受到其高管特征的影响如何,以及哪些特征对组织业绩的影响更为显著,需要进一步的实证研究予以揭示。本文通过对沪、深两市的114家上市公司高管的有关特征与其业绩之间关系的实证分析,得出了有关中国企业高管的几个人口特征指标与公司绩效之间的不同于西方研究的结论。鉴于中国企业所处的特定的制度和文化环境,我们对检验结果进行了具体的解释和讨论,并对处于转型经济中的中国企业在本研究主题的发展作出了一定的展望。     

Friend or Foe? CEO gender,political ideology,and gender-pay disparities in executive compensation

Do female CEOs reduce gender-pay disparities in top management teams (TMTs)? Some scholars draw on social identity theory to argue that, as individuals tend to identify with and support their in-groups, appointing a female corporate leader (i.e., CEO) will mitigate the gender-pay gap among executives. Yet, others draw on the queen-bee syndrome to postulate that some female CEOs may rather strengthen gender-pay disparities in upper echelons – by favoring out-groups (male) more than their in-groups (female). We bring together these opposing theoretical arguments to develop a ‘beyond CEO gender’ perspective, arguing that the effects of CEO gender on TMT gender-pay disparities should be considered in conjunction with the corporate leaders' values – as reflected by their political ideology. Our research demonstrates that conservative-female CEOs compensate female (versus male) executives lower compared to all other CEO gender-ideology categories (i.e., female-liberal CEOs, male-liberal CEOs, and male-conservative CEOs). Overall, our work contributes to theory on the CEO-TMT interface by highlighting the role of the CEO as the ‘architect’ of executive remuneration.     

Zum Einfluss der Mandatsdauer des Abschlusspr��fers auf die Pr��fungsqualit?t

This study provides evidence on the relation between auditor tenure and audit quality. It is motivated by calls for mandatory auditor rotation, which are based on concerns that longer auditor tenure reduces auditor independence and thus audit quality. Earnings management is used as proxy for audit quality and is measured by absolute and signed performance-adjusted-Jones-model discretionary accruals. Multivariate analyses, controlling for additional firm and auditor characteristics indicate lower earnings management with longer auditor tenure. This result suggests that, in the current environment, mandatory limitations on the length of auditor-client-relationship would result in lower audit quality.     

A theoretical model of training and its transference: the pivotal role of top management team composition and characteristics

Training is considered an important tool for organizations as they attempt to gain competitive advantages. However, transferring and maintaining the acquired skills and knowledge to the workforce remain problematic. Managerial support is a factor influencing training and its transference. However, the role of top management teams (TMTs) in this process has largely been ignored. This paper posits that the degree to which an organization invests in training initiatives, as well as the percentage of training transference and maintenance, is a function of TMT composition, TMT characteristics, and the degree to which the TMT holds subordinate managers accountable. A model and propositions are advanced in this study.     

Understanding top managers’ careers: How does career variety impact tenure on the board?

Career variety has recently received attention in management literature in general, and top management literature in particular. While existing publications have predominantly linked career variety to individual adaptability, agility or competences, this paper focuses on the relationship between top managers’ career variety and their tenure on the board. We rely on the boundaryless career approach and argue that there is a negative relationship between career variety and board tenure. Drawing on a sample of executive directors in UK FT 100 firms, we provide empirical evidence that increased career variety leads to shorter tenure on the board. We also reveal that this relationship is further strengthened with international educational experience. In addition, we show that in-house work experience mitigates the negative association between career variety and board tenure. We contribute to the literature on top managers’ careers by unravelling the consequences that career variety during early and mid-stages of a career has on tenure on the board – and hence on career stability in later stages of a career.     

Einfluss der Mandatsdauer des Abschlussprüfers auf ergebniszielgr??enorientierte Bilanzpolitik

This study examines whether the length of auditor-client-relationship affects audit quality. It is motivated by recent calls for mandatory auditor rotation in Europe which are based on concerns that a longer auditor tenure reduces audit quality. Earnings management is used as proxy for audit quality. It is measured by the firms’ success to achieve earnings benchmark targets. A situation in which an abnormal high proportion of firms just meet the benchmark and an abnormal low proportion of firms just miss the benchmark is interpreted as earnings management. Analysed benchmark targets are the reporting of small profits (loss avoidance) and the reporting of small positive earnings increases. Multivariate analyses indicate a higher success for benchmark beating with longer auditor tenure. This result suggests that, in the current environment, mandatory limitations on the length of auditor-client-relationship could result in higher audit quality.