Defence mechanisms as predictors of trust and positive relationships in top management teams

BACKGROUND: Top managers are heavily exposed to strong negative emotions due to the difficult decisive situations that they experience and the persistent pressure of time and uncertainty. At the same time, the relationships they build within TMTs shape their decisions, experiences and reactions at work. The paper refers to defence mechanisms as relatively persistent means of individual response to unwanted emotions and affects. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the paper is to examine the defence mechanisms of TMT members as antecedents of perceived trustworthiness of other team members and positive relationships in the team. METHODS: The empirical study was conducted in a sample of 123 members of top management teams representing furniture industry companies in Poland. RESULTS: The results show that defence mechanisms determine TMT members’ perception of trustworthiness of other team-members and that perceived trustworthiness mediates the relation between the defence mechanisms of TMT members and their evaluation of relationships within a team. CONCLUSIONS: The study explains links between individual characteristics of TMT members and processes within the teams. It contributes to upper echelon theory and literature on trust and positive relationships at work. It also contributes to the line of research introducing unconscious processes and emotions to management studies.

The role of project managers’ attributes in project sustainability management and project performance under China-Pakistan economic corridor

Purpose Steered by upper echelon theory, this study aims to scrutinize the prevalence of project manager demographic factors (age, education and experience) in project sustainability management and project performance. Design/methodology/approach We used a sample of 209 project managers/supervisor/team leaders who were working in the projects of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Findings The results indicate that project manager demographic factors have a significant influence on project performance (except experience) and project sustainability management. Moreover, project sustainability management partially mediates the relationship between age, education and project performance while it fully mediates the path between experience and project performance. Practical implications The research recommends senior, high educated and experienced managers for CPEC who promote sustainability and gain high project performance. Originality/value A number of studies have been carried out to assess the relationship between top managers’ attributes and environmental activities. However, so far, none of the studies has paid attention to the CPEC and projects working in Pakistan.

Imitation in foreign location choice: The role of upper echelons' diversity

<p>This research investigates how the Top Management Team (TMT) characteristics impact the imitation of home country firms’ Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) location choice. A review of the FDI location choice research was performed, and various viewpoints for the selecting locations were identified. Amongst these viewpoints, the institutional perspective suggests that lack of cognition coupled with uncertainty about host markets compels firms to follow the FDI decisions of other home country firms. The review identified that the current literature in the cognitive domain had overlooked the role of TMTs. Upper echelon theory suggests that TMTs are not only a unique source of cognitive resources but also help to overcome challenges associated with internationalisation. This research applies institutional theory and the upper echelon theory to advance the argument of how and why TMT characteristics may impact the imitation of location choice decisions. Various TMT attributes like TMT international experience, TMT international experience diversity, TMT tenure diversity, TMT education diversity and TMT functional diversity were hypothesised to moderate the imitation in FDI location choice. This research applied quantitative methods to assess the proposed hypotheses. First, a sample of 202 US-based firms (which invested in 11 Asia-Pacific countries from 2009 to 2014) was collected from FDI Markets database. This sample generated a panel dataset of 12,771 observations. Nearly 11,000 unique top manager profiles were created to compute the TMT data for the firms in the given period. Through logistic regression, this study assessed whether TMT attributes moderate the extent of imitation in FDI location choice. The findings from this research contribute to institutional theory by highlighting the role of upper echelons. In particular, the findings show that while TMT tenure diversity weakens the effect of imitation, TMT functional diversity further exacerbates the effect of imitation in location choice. It was also found that when firms do not have a prior presence in the host country, then TMT international experience also strengthens the effect of prior FDI by other home country firms. The research also supports that the effect of various TMT attributes could be subject to environmental conditions. In particular, it shows that deep-level characteristics cause a more profound impact when host country uncertainty is high, while surface-level characteristics are impactful when host country uncertainty is low.</p>

Imitation in foreign location choice: The role of upper echelons' diversity

<p>This research investigates how the Top Management Team (TMT) characteristics impact the imitation of home country firms’ Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) location choice. A review of the FDI location choice research was performed, and various viewpoints for the selecting locations were identified. Amongst these viewpoints, the institutional perspective suggests that lack of cognition coupled with uncertainty about host markets compels firms to follow the FDI decisions of other home country firms. The review identified that the current literature in the cognitive domain had overlooked the role of TMTs. Upper echelon theory suggests that TMTs are not only a unique source of cognitive resources but also help to overcome challenges associated with internationalisation. This research applies institutional theory and the upper echelon theory to advance the argument of how and why TMT characteristics may impact the imitation of location choice decisions. Various TMT attributes like TMT international experience, TMT international experience diversity, TMT tenure diversity, TMT education diversity and TMT functional diversity were hypothesised to moderate the imitation in FDI location choice. This research applied quantitative methods to assess the proposed hypotheses. First, a sample of 202 US-based firms (which invested in 11 Asia-Pacific countries from 2009 to 2014) was collected from FDI Markets database. This sample generated a panel dataset of 12,771 observations. Nearly 11,000 unique top manager profiles were created to compute the TMT data for the firms in the given period. Through logistic regression, this study assessed whether TMT attributes moderate the extent of imitation in FDI location choice. The findings from this research contribute to institutional theory by highlighting the role of upper echelons. In particular, the findings show that while TMT tenure diversity weakens the effect of imitation, TMT functional diversity further exacerbates the effect of imitation in location choice. It was also found that when firms do not have a prior presence in the host country, then TMT international experience also strengthens the effect of prior FDI by other home country firms. The research also supports that the effect of various TMT attributes could be subject to environmental conditions. In particular, it shows that deep-level characteristics cause a more profound impact when host country uncertainty is high, while surface-level characteristics are impactful when host country uncertainty is low.</p>

Board Gender Diversity and Firm Risk

In this chapter, we address the following question: Does board gender diversity affect global risk? Drawing on agency theory, upper echelon theory, and human capital theory, we hypothesize that gender diversity on the board of directors will decrease the volatility of firm risk. Applying fixed effect estimation on a panel data of listed French companies (SBF120) for the years 2011–2018, the results show a negative link between the percentage of female directors on the board and the standard deviation of monthly stock return as firm risk proxy suggesting that the inclusion of more women on corporate boards could improve financial stability. Our findings contribute to the literature by providing empirical evidence from France occupying the first place at the European level with the most female presence on the boards of directors.1

Can Top Management Teams' Academic Experience Promote Green Innovation Output: Evidence from Chinese Enterprises

Under the background of increasingly severe environmental problems, green innovation has become a key way to realize coordinated development of economy and environment. Therefore, it is of great significance to explore the antecedent factors of green innovation. Based on the upper-echelon theory, this study explores the influence of the academic background of top management teams (TMT) on firm's green innovation outcomes and firm performance in Chinese listed companies. This study also discusses three boundary conditions for TMT's academic experience to promote firm's green innovation. The results show that TMT's academic experience promotes green innovation output. Moreover, TMT's academic experience do not have a uniform effect: strict environmental regulation strengthens the relationship between TMT's academic experience and green innovation output, while political connection and innovation input negatively moderate this relationship. Furthermore, green innovation output does not result in better economic benefits for enterprises with top executives who have academic experience, and this condition is observed more in state-owned enterprises. This study reveals the motivation of green innovation and provides a useful reference for enterprises to implement green innovation strategy more effectively.

Entrepreneurs Traits/Characteristics and Innovation Performance of Waste Recycling Start-Ups in Ghana: An Application of the Upper Echelons Theory among SEED Award Winners

Waste management has become a pressing environmental, social, and economic issue. In Ghana, the government has decentralized the waste management system to include private sector actors as key players to improve the collection, disposal, and recycling of waste. With this development, a heterogeneous population of entrepreneurs has engaged in waste recycling, achieving mixed results in terms of performance. The aim of this paper is to identify shared personality traits and characteristics of entrepreneurs that make certain firms engage in waste recycling more innovatively than others. An extensive literature review was used to identify these personality traits and characteristics, which were then modeled using upper echelon theory (UET) to investigate their impact on innovation performance. A regression analysis approach was adopted based on the data collected from 157 entrepreneurs’ founders, co-founders, and shareholders among the waste recycling firms in Ghana selected for the annual Supporting Entrepreneurs for Environment and Development (SEED) Award competition. The key contribution of this research is to better understand the relationship between entrepreneur traits and innovation performance. Given the fact that in small start-ups, the founder plays the most important role, this paper serves as a foundation for defining individual-level factors critical in sustaining sustainable innovation performance in the waste recycling sector. The results of this study will help shareholders and policymakers better understand and implement strategies for determining and selecting innovative waste recycling entrepreneurs.

Exploring Salience as a Strategic Disposition in Kenya

Drawing from the socio-cognitive theory and upper echelon theory, we examined the relationship between salience and competitiveness by surveying 163 managers from leather and textile firms in Kenya. We used three dimensions of salience: impact, sensitivity and interest and measured competitiveness using both efficiency, such as profit; and effectiveness measures such as innovation. We found a significant relationship between all the dimensions of salience and competiveness (Impact: r = .250, p = .001; Sensitivity: r = .436, p < .001; Interest: r = .416, p < .001; Salience: r = .427, p <.001). Further, sensitivity significantly influenced the odds for competitiveness at 5% level of significance (sensitivity: exp (B) = 2.435, Wald = 4.191, p = .041); impact had the least negative and insignificant (exp (B) = .693, p = .444) prediction of the odds for competiveness. These findings suggest that the factors that are considered by managers of organizations as impactful, of interest and which managers perceived as sensitive have implications for competitiveness. It is recommended that managers enhance their cognitive capacity with regard to salience to be able to perceive and interpret environmental cues and use these to make appropriate strategic decisions to improve their competitiveness.

The Role of Top Managers in Implementing Corporate Sustainability—A Systematic Literature Review on Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

This systematic literature review investigates whether corporate sustainability (CS), according to the tribble bottom line concept (TBL), is implemented in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and further identifies associated drivers. Building on upper echelon theory (UET) and the Schwartz value system (SVS) this study aims to analyze and contextualize extant empirical research. We developed a PRISMA-based framework to select relevant studies systematically. Based on an initial sample of 1249 articles between 2000 and 2020, we provide critical analysis of 31 best practice, peer-reviewed journal articles. Our findings suggest seven specifications of CS in SMEs that are driven by either internal or external motivations. Our review reveals that, overwhelmingly, SMEs engage in CS but fail to report it (“green blushing”). Furthermore, we find that the top managers of SMEs are a huge driver of CS. Oftentimes, they are even pioneers of good social and environmental practices. Finally, we identify four value dimensions (benevolence, achievement, power, and conformity values) according to the dimensions of the SVS that drive SMEs’ top managers’ engagement in CS. We contribute to the current state of research by conducting the first literature review that exclusively investigates how SMEs’ executives influence the enterprise’s commitment towards CS, based on the UET and the SVS. Thereby, we discuss implications and provide valuable recommendations for researchers, practitioners, and regulators alike.