The impacts of top management team characteristics on entrepreneurial strategic orientation: The moderating effects of industrial environment and corporate ownership
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to empirically examine the questions of how top management team (TMT) characteristics, including TMT heterogeneity and vertical dyads differences between TMT and Board Director, influence entrepreneurial strategic orientation, as well as how industry environment and corporate ownership moderate those relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper designs the panel data on the listed companies of China's Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Board for the period 2006-2010, and uses hierarchical regression analysis and grouping regression analysis when examining the relationships among variables involved.
Findings
The paper provides empirical insights about how top management team (TMT) characteristics, including TMT heterogeneity and vertical dyads differences between TMT and Board Director, influence entrepreneurial strategic orientation, as well as how industry environment and corporate ownership moderate those relationships. It suggests that, except for TMT educational background, the heterogeneity of TMT age, gender, functional experience, and the vertical dyad differences between TMT and board chairperson significantly and positively impact ESO. Furthermore, industry environment and corporate ownership will moderate the relationship between TMT characteristics and ESO.
Originality/value
This paper fulfills an identified need to study how top management team characteristics influence entrepreneurial strategic orientation, as well as how industry environment and corporate ownership moderate those relationships.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are very grateful to receive the valuable suggestions and comments from Anne S. Tsui, Gerry Keim, Brian Boyd, Wei Shen, and David Zhu, Professors of W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. The authors also thank this journal's two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions. The research was supported by the projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 70802016), the Ministry of Education of China (Grant No. 09YJC630114) and the Priority Academic Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD). All remaining errors, however, are solely the responsibility of the authors.
Citation
Yang, L. and Wang, D. (2014), "The impacts of top management team characteristics on entrepreneurial strategic orientation: The moderating effects of industrial environment and corporate ownership", Management Decision, Vol. 52 No. 2, pp. 378-409. https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-03-2013-0140
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited