The New CEO and the Post‐succession Process: An Integration of Past Research and Future Directions

Abstract

The early tenure of a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), also referred to as ‘the CEO post‐succession process’, is a critical phase in the history of an organization, because it is associated with a high rate of organizational failure and CEO dismissal. Research on this important process has grown rapidly over the last decade, focusing particularly on the question of how the match between the CEO, the organization and the environment is created in the post‐succession process. Yet, the respective literature is highly fragmented, which suggests that there is a need for a systematic review and evaluation of existing works. Adopting the conceptual vocabulary of the practice perspective, the authors review this literature in terms of what it reveals about (1) the practices adopted by new CEOs and other actors involved in the post‐succession process, (2) the properties of the key practitioners involved, and (3) the practical context of the post‐succession process. This review suggests that new CEOs are primarily involved in practices aimed at integrating the new CEO into the organization, and practices aimed at realigning the organization with its environment. The important insights that the existing literature affords are identified, and the gaps in this body of research are highlighted. On this basis, a concrete research agenda is developed in terms of topics, methodologies and theories.

The Origin of Chief Executive Officers and Performance in Hybrid Businesses: The Case of Microfinance

“…ROA is our first dependent variable to proxy for MFIs' financial performance. ROA is the most commonly used financial performance metric of the microfinance industry (Galema, Lensink, and Mersland 2012), and it is also frequently applied in banking studies (Ma, Seidl, and Guerard 2015). Since equity levels differ widely among MFIs ROA is considered to be a better benchmark than ROE when studying the performance of MFIs (Mersland and Strøm 2009).…”

“…Existing studies on the performance consequences of the CEO origin are well documented for commercial banks and publicly traded firms (Ma, Seidl, and Guerard 2015). Empirical evidence from previous studies found that inside CEOs' understanding of firms' capabilities pave a way to implementing strategies that positively influence the performance of firms (Lauterbach, Vu, and Weisberg 1999;Zajac 1990;Zhang and Rajagopalan 2010).…”

The role of chief executive tenure for public organizations' hiring of management consultants

“…The literature on top managers' tenure has grown steadily in the last 50 years and gained attention from various fields like organization studies, strategy, accounting, and corporate finance (Ma, Seidl, & Guérard, 2015). Core to this research is the paradigm of CE tenure seasons 2 developed by Hambrick and Fukutomi (1991).…”

Processo sucessório: o complexo desafio do desenvolvimento de lideranças

“…Estudos como os de McMurray, Henly, Chaboyer, Clapton, Lizzio e Teml (2012) demonstram o valor da mentoria na formação de liderança mais capacitadas e no incremento da motivação para a atuação empresarial. Além disso, o apoio de membros do conselho de administração pode ser fundamental para um processo pós-sucessão, bemsucedido, conforme afirmam Ma et al (2015).…”