The CEO as a key micro-foundation of global strategy: Task demands, CEO origin, and the CEO’s international background

January 2019 | Cannella, Albert

We explore the selection of new CEOs with international backgrounds as a key microfoundation of global strategy. Building on executive succession, upper echelons, and international business research, we argue that firms choose CEOs with international backgrounds to match their task demands. We further argue that depending on the CEO’s origin from inside or outside the firm, different task demands matter. Specifically, we propose that the relationship between internal (firm‐level) task demands and the new CEO’s international background is more pronounced for inside successions, whereas the relationship between external (industry‐level) task demands and the new CEO’s international background is more pronounced for outside successions. An analysis of a sample of 363 CEO successions in S&P 500 firms supports our reasoning.

Author

Albert Cannella

Co-author(s)

• Sven Kunisch
• Markus Menz

Publication(s)

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