| Revisiting the Effects of Strategic Leadership on Corporate Strategy: The Unit of Analysis Dilemma |
| | Jensen, Michael | Northwestern U. | m-jensen2@nwu.edu | (847)-332-4675 |
| | Zajac, Edward J. | Northwestern U. | | |
| | In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in research addressing how CEOs, top management teams, and boards of directors influence corporate strategy. This growth is largely attributable to the development of the upper echelons perspective focusing on how top management team (TMT) demography affect strategic decisions, and the agency perspective focusing on the strategic consequences of managers and owners divergent interests. While this explosion in research attention represents an important advance in strategy research, at least one puzzling fact remains: Why are the overall findings on the effects of top management characteristics and agency relations on strategy so mixed?
This study address this question by developing and testing a theoretical framework that highlights the value of considering both demographic and structural aspects of strategic leadership when analyzing the effects of leadership on corporate strategy. We argue, and find empirically, that considering only one aspect at the expense of the other may lead to an unfortunately narrow choice regarding units of analysis (e.g., agency theorists' insider-outsider director unit, or organizational demographers' TMT unit) that can oversimplify or even mask the true relationship between strategic leadership and corporate strategy.
We test our predictions using extensive longitudinal date on the diversification and restructuring activities in a random sample of 200 Fortune 500 firms from 1985 to 1995. The empirical analyses support our perspective that both the direction and the strength of the strategic leadership/corporate strategy relationship vary significantly, depending on the unit of analysis chosen.
|
| | Keywords: strategic leadership; diversification; restructuring |
| Relative Deprivation, Relative Standing, and Their Impacts on Executive Turnover in the CEO Succession Context: A Social Psychological Framework |
| | Shen, Wei | Texas A&M U./Rutgers U. | wshen@tamu.edu | (409) 845-0926 |
| | Executive turnover in the CEO succession context has been primarily explained from an organizational adaptation perspective and treated as strategic replacement initiated by the CEO successor. In this article we develop an alternative, social psychological framework that highlights the social and relational aspects of CEO succession. By viewing CEO succession as a tournament in which several executives contend for the top position, we argue that executive turnover in the succession context can be understood as a consequence of the social psychological impacts that the succession tournament creates on the executives involved. More specifically, we assert that the relative deprivation and decrease in relative standing experienced by passed-over executives lead to their turnover.
Research on relative deprivation theory in social psychology has concluded that the intensity of relative deprivation is positively associated with both an individual's desire to obtain an object and his/her perceived entitlement. We propose that executive age, succession mode, hierarchical position, inside directorship, functional background, and similarity with the CEO successor are factors influencing an executive's desire and perceived entitlement to obtain the CEO title, and thus influence his/her intensity of relative deprivation and likelihood of turnover when passed over in the succession tournament. We also propose that pre-succession relative standing, CEO pay differential, CEO duality of the successor, and post-succession promotion influence a passed-over executive's decrease in relative standing and his/her likelihood of turnover. Lastly, we discuss our theory's implications for the future study of executive turnover in the succession context. (244)
|
| | Keywords: Executive turnover; CEO succession; social psychological framework |
| Predicting Order and Timing of New Product Moves: The Role of Top Management |
| | Srivastava, Abhishek | U. of Maryland | asrivast@rhsmith.umd.edu | 301-405-2162 |
| | Lee, Hun | George Mason U. | hleeb@som.gmu.edu | (703)-993-1816 |
| | Smith, Ken G. | U. of Maryland | Kgsmith@rhsmith.umd.edu | 301-405-2250 |
| | Grimm, Curtis M. | U. of Maryland | cgrimm@rhsmith.umd.edu | (301)-405-2235 |
| | This paper examines the role of top management team characteristics in predicting order and timing of new product moves. New
product introduction data is drawn from the long distance telecommunication, brewing and personal computer industries from the
1975-1990 period. Hypotheses are developed and tested using both linear regression and logistic regression models. Among the
key results are that top management teams with higher levels of company experience are more likely to introduce their new
products early. Larger TMTs are more likely to introduce their new products earlier. Also, greater heterogeneity of TMTs makes
it more likely the firm will be early in the introduction of new products. Post hoc analysis revealed differences of effects across
industries. |
| | Keywords: New product; Top management; First mover |
| The Effects of Past Performance on Top Management Team Conflict in Strategic Decision Making |
| | Amason, Allen C. | U. of Georgia | aamason@terry.cba.uga.edu | (706)-542-3702 |
| | Mooney, Ann C. | U. of Georgia | amooney@arches.uga.edu | (706)-542-4663 |
| | Research into the antecedents of TMT conflict has become increasingly popular in light of the effects that such conflict can have on strategic decision outcomes and organizational performance. While a part of this emerging stream, our study takes a different approach and examines organizational performance as an antecedent of TMT conflict. Using data drawn from the TMTs of 44 mid-sized public firms, we demonstrate that cognitive and affective conflict are differentially related to past performance. The implications of this for efforts to effectively manage conflict during strategic decision making are discussed. |
| | Keywords: conflict; top management team; strategic decision making |
| The Role of Top Management Team Heterogeneity on Organizational Survival and Adaptation in an Environmental Shift |
| | Cho, Theresa S. | Rutgers U. | cho@everest.rutgers.edu | 732.445.5648 |
| | This paper examines the effects of TMT heterogeneity on organizational survival and performance in the context of a major environmental shift. Using the deregulated trucking and airline industries as the context, a number of hypotheses based on managerial discretion theory are developed and tested. The findings suggest that TMT heterogeneity enhances post-deregulation survival and performance but have ambivalent effects on pre-deregulation performance. |
| | Keywords: top management team; heterogeneity; managerial discretion |