The interaction of Top Management Team (TMT) and Middle Managers (MM) is central to effective strategy formulation and implementation, but researchers have remained notably silent on the actual nature of this interaction. In this paper, we specify the functions of the TMT-MM interface, and formulate a series of propositions that link TMT and MMs' interaction processes, role behaviors, and trust…
The literature on top-down strategy implementation has overlooked social-emotional factors. The results of a three-year field study of a large technology firm show how top executives who favor an affect neutral task approach can inadvertently activate middle managers' organization-related social identities, such as length of time working for the company (newcomers versus veterans) and language …
Critics of the CEO/COO duo have stressed that this arrangement burdens the firm with increased costs and decreases the CEO's effectiveness. This study adopts an upper echelon perspective to argue that the presence of a COO may also create TMT-level information-processing benefits that can improve firm performance in certain conditions. Data from a sample of 153 firms in five industries highligh…
This study addresses an apparent disconnect between two views of strategic action: the 'economic view,' which contends that industry structure is the primary influence on strategic action, and the 'cognitive view,' which suggests that managerial cognition drives strategic action. We argue that this disconnect has created artificial boundaries between the two perspectives and has limited our abi…
Prior findings on the association between top management team (TMT) functional diversity and firm performance have been inconsistent. We consider the moderating effects of internal context (colocation of TMT members) and external context (environmental uncertainty) on the TMT diversity-firm performance relationship. Additionally, we consider both dominant and intrapersonal functional diversity.…
Research about transformational CEOs' impact on firm-level outcomes, particularly corporate entrepreneurship, has been equivocal, partially because the underlying mechanisms remain largely unexplored. Given that the individuals most closely influenced by a firm's CEO are its top management team (TMT) members, we focus on the CEO-TMT interface as a salient intervening mechanism. We posit that tr…
This article investigates the configuration of cognition- and affect-based trust in managers' professional networks, examining how these two types of trust are associated with relational content and structure. Results indicate that cognition-based trust is positively associated with economic resource, task advice, and career guidance ties, whereas affect-based trust is positively associated wit…
Not all firms choose to have a chief marketing officer (CMO) in their top management teams (TMTs). This research investigates factors associated with this choice and whether CMO presence/absence in the face of these factors affects firm performance. Findings based on a multi-industry sample of 167 firms over a five-year period (2000-2004) show that innovation, differentiation, branding strategy…
This paper postulates that "legal astuteness" - defined here as the ability of the top management team to communicate effectively with counsel and to work together to solve complex problems - is a valuable managerial capability that may provide a competitive advantage under the resource-based view of the firm. It posits that law and the tools it offers are an enabling force legally astute manag…
Agency-based studies of boards of directors address factors relevant to board vigilance with respect to the monitoring of senior managers. We argue that relying solely on director vigilance may be limiting because vigilance without relevant experience is unlikely to ensure board effectiveness. Our contention is that boards comprising vigilant directors, as well as directors with appropriate kno…
They're nominally and ultimately responsible for strategy, but today's CEOs have less and less time to devote to it. As a result, CEOs are appointing chief strategy officers - executives specifically tasked with creating, communicating, executing, and sustaining a company's strategic initiatives. In this article, three authors from Accenture share the results of their research on this emerging …
In this study we examine the changes in executive compensation at the top management team (TMT) level following an environmental shift. Using the context of deregulation in the airline industry, we find that: (1) a dramatic environmental change that heightens managerial discretion leads to greater pay level and performance sensitivity of TMT compensation; and (2) the greater the magnitude of tu…
Prior research suggests that top management team (TMT) diversity increases strategic innovation. We extended this argument to the case of entering new geographic areas. In addition to exploring the cognitive implications of TMT diversity, as done in prior research, we explored when diversity may lead to the formation of subgroups within TMTs hampering communication and the propensity to enter n…