Non-CEO executive mobility: The impact of poor firm performance and TMT attention
Buyl,T.P.L. Boone,Christophe Wade,James B.
Buyl,T.P.L.
Boone,Christophe
Wade,James B.
Abstract
We present a comprehensive and integrative study of non-CEO executive mobility, proposing two complementary approaches: (1) mobility as a reactive process, driven by poor organizational performance (the dominant approach in prior literature) and (2) mobility as a proactive process, reflecting incumbent TMTs’ patterns of (exploratory and exploitative) attention. Using a sample of 1168 observations proceeding from 197 US organizations (2000–2011), we empirically validate that non-CEO executives’ exit and inflow is driven by poor organizational performance, and that CEO replacement mediates this effect (i.e., the so-called ‘sweep-out effect’). Furthermore, the probability of non-CEO executive inflow is higher when the incumbent TMT has a high level of exploratory attention and lower when there is a high level of exploitative attention. These ‘proactive’ effects occur over and above the ‘reactive’ processes of poor organizational performance.
Description
Date
2015-08
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
Non-CEO executive mobility, TMT exploratory attention, TMT exploitative attention, Organizational performance
Citation
Buyl, T P L, Boone, C & Wade, J B 2015, 'Non-CEO executive mobility : The impact of poor firm performance and TMT attention', European Management Journal, vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 257-267. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2015.02.001