Chief marketing officer and internationalization—a resource-based view

PurposeThis study aims to examine whether the selection of a new outsider chief marketing officer from a developed-country incumbent firm with an established brand can serve as an alternative strategy to the acquisition of developed-country firms in benefiting the internationalization of a postselection emerging-market brand marketer that suffers from late-mover disadvantages.Design/methodology/approachA pretest (survey) and two main studies (experiments) were conducted to examine the proposed mediation model of “Chief Marketing Officer background—enhancement of capabilities—brand competitiveness”.FindingsAn emerging-market brand marketer gains enhanced resources and capabilities when a new chief marketing officer is recruited from a developed-country incumbent with a superior reputation, leading to improved brand competitiveness. This positive effect accrues from the new chief marketing officer's background (i.e. prior work organization) spilling over to his/her new emerging-market employer.Originality/valueThis research integrates the research streams of emerging-market firm internationalization, chief marketing officer and executive succession to provide an alternative strategy for emerging-market firms to overcome late-mover disadvantages in global markets.

Portuguese and Brazilian Family Business: in Between Urgency and Delay Perceptions in the Succession Process

Family business has been the focus of several studies over the last two decades and its relevance has been supported by the interdisciplinary perspectives in the fields of management, entrepreneurship, economics, psychology, and sociology. Despite that, there is still insufficient knowledge about the key role of family influences in the business, namely the intergenerational management succession, its planning and effectiveness. According to a recent research focused on the entrepreneurial succession in Portugal (AEP, 2011), 50 percent of family businesses are not passed on to the second generation and only 20 percent reach the third generation. In fact, business succession planning has been identified as one of the most challenging steps in the life of the family firm, both in maintaining the competiveness of the business, and in overcoming intra/ inter family conflicts. Nonetheless, resistance to succession, relationship founder/ successor, planning of succession, and type of organisational culture, among others, explain how executive succession is one of the most important and hardest tasks in organisational life (Zahra, 2005). This paper will be supported mainly by qualitative data, taking into account the main results from the project “Roadmap for Portuguese Family Businesses” (NORTE2020/FEDER) developed in Portugal (Marques, 2018) and in Brazil (Silva, 2018), which analyses in-depth interviews conducted to Portuguese (N 23) and Brazilian (N 11) founders/managers/owners. In the present article we wish to discuss the main management challenges of a family business, particularly the importance of succession preparation and the role of the family in the socialisation of the second (third or subsequent) generation.

Determinants Linked to Executive Succession Planning in Public Sector Organizations

Succession planning is important for organizational growth and business sustainability in the public sector. However, few organizations have attempted to introduce the concept and practice. This article aimed to identify and prioritize the factors that influence executive succession planning in the public sector in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), using the analytic hierarchy process. A model was developed with 5 criteria and 29 sub-criteria and tested using data collected from 40 interviews with top executives from various public sector organizations. The findings showed that succession planning strategy, organizational culture and leadership development opportunities were the most significant factors linked to executive succession planning in the UAE public sector. A framework for decision-makers was developed which could be used to overcome some of the challenges of executive succession planning. It is hoped that this study will help policymakers to formulate suitable policies and strategies to promote executive succession planning in public sector organizations. It will also help them to implement best practice in this field.

Conclusions, Future Research Directions, and Policy Implications

In this chapter we summarize and synthesize key tenets of the symbolic management perspective on corporate governance and strategy. We discuss opportunities for future research on the forms and processes of symbolic management. We call for research on different audiences of symbolic management (e.g., lower-level managers and employees), different subjects of symbolic management (e.g., corporate transparency, executive succession, and various aspects of the decision-making process, such as the use of performance feedback), and different forms of symbolic management (e.g., cooperative and competitive forms). We then propose symbolic management theory as a powerful and comprehensive approach to the study of organizational behaviour more broadly, and conclude by describing managerial and public policy implications of our theory.

Intergenerational Management Succession: Specificities of the Portuguese Family Business

Family firms are considered the world’s most predominant form of business organisation. Notwithstanding the fact that there is a lack of consensus with regards to their definition, on recognise that family firms are different from non-family businesses due to their specific relations at three levels, namely ownership, business and family. It would appear that the family influences, shapes and conditions both the firm and its continuity, mainly through the intergenerational management succession, its planning and effectiveness. According to a recent research focused on the entrepreneurial succession in Portugal (AEP, 2011), 50% of family businesses are not passed on to the second generation, and only 20% reach the third generation. Also, taking into account the main results from the project “Roadmap for Portuguese Family Businesses” (NORTE2020/FEDER), the empirical findings have proved that the business succession planning has been identified as one of the most challenging steps in the life of the family firm, which demands for appropriate analysis. In fact, resistance to succession, relationship founder/ successor, planning of succession, type of organisational culture, among others, explain how executive succession is one of the most important and hardest tasks in organisational life. In this article, we aim to discuss the main management challenges of a family business, particularly the importance of succession preparation and the role of the family in the socialisation of the second (third or subsequent) generation. Based on an online survey (N 1148) and on in-depth interviews conducted to founder/ manager/ owner (N 23), we will seek to point out major challenges faced by the Portuguese family business, as far as this matter is concerned.