How international are executive boards of European MNCs? Nationality diversity in 15 European countries

Why Do Firms Employ Foreigners on Their Top Management Teams? A Multilevel Exploration of Individual and Firm Level Antecedents

“…Our results lend support to the notion that highly international firms are more likely to have foreigners in their upper echelons (van Veen and Marsman, 2008;Staples, 2007). At the same time, we find no evidence that foreign executives possess more valuable human capital compared to domestic executives.…”

“…Over the last decade, the number of foreigners serving on top management teams has increased significantly in a number of European countries Greve, 2008, van Veen andMarsman, 2008). However, it is unclear whether this trend is a result of conscious firm level efforts to match their managers to firm internationalization strategy or a random outcome of selecting the best person for an executive position (regardless of nationality).…”

“…Instead, Perlmutter and Heenan (1974) suggest the use of foreign nationals as top managers. With the increasing globalization, foreign-born managers have become more prevalent among the ranks of business leaders (Business Week, 1998;Staples, 2007;van Veen and Marsman, 2008). A recent study explored the international market for executive labor in Europe and concluded that except for Denmark and Norway, European MNCs stepped up their hiring of foreign top executives during the period 2005 (Ruigrok and Greve, 2008).…”

The Corporate Elite Community Structure of Global Capitalism

“…Second, business cultures do still differ significantly across the different regions of the world. Previous research found a link between the topology of networks of interlocking directorates and the variety of capitalism dominant in a country (Van Veen and Marsman 2008). Different preferences of corporate (and political) elites regarding the coordination of markets may lead to different regional patterns in board interlocks.…”

Home Countries and Transnational Bribery: China’s Changing Approach

“…Finally, the incongruence of values between the developed and the developing world, which may affect efficiency of foreign bribery laws, 67 is visible not only in the developing, but also in developed countries like, e.g., the Netherlands, where almost half of top managers are foreigners. 68 It is also significant that a large proportion of foreign managers in the EU are from the regions with a different cultural approach to bribery, such as Africa, continental Europe, 69 or Indians in the UK. 70 …”