Structure and characteristics of top management teams as antecedents of outside executive appointments: a three-country study

Doms, Maximilian; Knyphausen‐Aufseß, Dodo zu

doi:10.1080/09585192.2014.914052

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 132 publications

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“…Second, this research contributes to the executive appointment literature by uncovering the strength of environmental forces in the executive selection process. While extant research has investigated the role of environmental complexity as an antecedent of executive selection (Greve et al, 2015; Nielsen, 2010), most of the executive appointment literature has focused on firm‐level characteristics and, especially, on the team and individual‐level factors that intervene in the executive selection process (Boone et al, 2004; Doms & Zu Knyphausen‐Aufseß, 2014; Georgakakis et al, 2021; Zhu, Shen, & Hillman, 2014). Along the same lines, the executive job demands perspective outlines how macro‐level factors (e.g., country‐level phenomena) can affect micro‐level processes (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

International environmental complexity and the demand for generalists and specialists in executive selection

Vallone

Elia

Greve

2022

Global Strategy Journal

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Research SummaryThis study investigates the selection of generalists and specialists as an organizational response to the complexity of firms' international operations. Drawing on the concept of executive job demands, we identify institutional ambiguity and economic sophistication as two distinct sources of country environmental complexity resulting from a firm's foreign investment and predict how they affect the selection of new executives at multinational firms. Our hypotheses associate institutional ambiguity and economic sophistication with the appointment of executives with generalist and specialist backgrounds, respectively. We also examine how the two sources of environmental complexity interact and test multiple alternative specifications to enhance our understanding of environmental complexity as a determinant of executive job demands in the context of international business. Our empirical analyses are performed on a sample of 436 executive appointments occurring in 132 UK‐based manufacturing firms, observed between 2008 and 2018. Findings show general support for our main hypotheses. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings as well as directions for future research.Managerial SummaryThis study suggests that companies operating across different international environments through their subsidiary operations will be exposed to distinct demands that vary according to the type of environmental complexity. Our results reveal that companies tend to appoint top managers with specialist backgrounds when their focus is on economically sophisticated environments, whereas top managers with generalist backgrounds tend to be preferred in institutionally ambiguous environments. Our findings enhance our understanding of the demand for executive generalists and specialists in the international business context by showing that top managers' backgrounds are matched with the prevailing type of complexity deriving from the international operations of the firm, thus, questioning the widely held notion that executive generalists are generally preferred over specialists. Our study has important implications for the composition of top management teams and the shaping of executive career paths at multinational firms.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

International environmental complexity and the demand for generalists and specialists in executive selection

Vallone

Elia

Greve

2022

Global Strategy Journal

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“…Others have highlighted the differential effects that the inside and outside hiring of new executives may have on TMT composition. More precisely, the decision to promote internally or hire new executives externally is influenced by the TMT composition and structure ex ante (Doms & Knyphausen-Aufseß, 2014). In addition, firms are more likely to appoint socio-demographically dissimilar executives through internal promotions, while external hires tend to show greater similarity to incumbent executives (Georgakakis, Greve, & Ruigrok, 2018).…”

Section: The Tmt As An Outcomementioning

confidence: 99%

Top management teams in international business research: A review and suggestions for future research

et al. 2021

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This article reviews and critically assesses the large and diverse literature on top management teams (TMTs) that has focused on international business (IB) issues. We apply an organizing framework that centers around four key elements of TMTs -TMT composition, structure, processes, and governanceand the most commonly studied IB-related choices and outcomes. This framework allows us to synthesize the contributions of the literature on TMTs in IB and identify opportunities for future research. The contributions of our review are threefold. First, we offer a roadmap for navigating the large and diverse literature on TMTs in IB. Second, we provide a systematic and critical evaluation of the key empirical and theoretical developments in this literature. Third, we highlight opportunities for future research to make theoretical and empirical advancements in each of the areas of our organizing framework. In these future research opportunities, we draw particular attention to the need to further contextualize TMT research in IB by proposing opportunities to more systematically incorporate the unique nature of the MNE and the external environment in which the MNE operates.1 Some scholars have acknowledged in passing that on some occasions TMTs could also comprise members who are lower in the firms' hierarchy, such as division presidents (e.g., Hambrick, 2010).

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“…Kaczmarek et al (2012) find that the strong presence of females and non-British nationals on nomination committees of British boards has an impact on board diversity and nationality diversity. Focusing on Chief Human Resource Officers (CHROs) in France, Germany, and the UK, Doms and zu Knyphausen-Aufseß (2014) show that similarity in incumbent top management team (TMT) demographics holds significant explanatory power for new appointees' origins. Drawing on an Indian sample, Damaraju and Makhija (2018) reveal that social proximity in terms of caste and religion influences CEO selection.…”

Section: Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our study offers several contributions, the first of which is of a theoretical nature, in that we provide theoretical reasoning for a negative relationship between top managers' internationality and their board tenure. With the similarity-attraction paradigm as a theoretical lens, we argue that similarity and attraction matter not only in appointment decisions (Doms and zu Knyphausen-Aufseß 2014), but also for tenure of top managers. While it has been stated that relational demography approaches (Tsui and O'Reilly 1989) are useful for studying the impact of similarity and dissimilarity on appointment decisions (Westphal and Zajac 1995) or CEO compensation (Fiss 2006), we claim that similarity and dissimilarity also have an impact during subsequent stages of a top manager's career.…”

Section: Contributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

International Top Managers on Corporate Boards: Dissimilarity and Tenure

Schmid

Mitterreiter

2020

Manag Int Rev

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The number of top managers with foreign nationality and of top managers with international work experience on corporate boards has increased over the last decades. In business and management literature, the common understanding is that board diversity and international work experience for board members go hand in hand with numerous positive consequences for MNCs. But how does dissimilarity in nationality and in international work experience affect a top manager and his or her tenure on the board? Drawing on interpersonal attraction research and analyzing 149 management board members from German DAX-30 firms, we find empirical evidence that dissimilarity in nationality and in international work experience have a negative association with tenure. Based on social capital theory, we also suggest that the nexus between a top manager with an international background and his or her tenure is moderated by ‘firm insidership’. Our data confirm that having work experience in a firm before being appointed to its board is indeed linked to longer tenure but does not alleviate the disadvantages of being international. In sum, the resulting implication of our research is that, contrary to widely accepted scholarly opinions, a top manager’s international background may also have detrimental effects—in our case negative effects on tenure.

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Structure and characteristics of top management teams as antecedents of outside executive appointments: a three-country study

Cited by 11 publications

References 132 publications

International environmental complexity and the demand for generalists and specialists in executive selection

International environmental complexity and the demand for generalists and specialists in executive selection

Top management teams in international business research: A review and suggestions for future research

International Top Managers on Corporate Boards: Dissimilarity and Tenure

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