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The primary purpose of this chapter is to examine some old truths about leadership at the CEO level, and to summarize a new perspective based on charismatic leadership theory that could help cast light on this important area of strategic management. In so doing, we attempt to move charismatic leadership theory in some new directions by bridging micro-and macro-level conceptualizations. The upper echelons perspective from the strategic management literature is first summarized. We then identify problems in conceptualization and measurement that have served to limit the usefulness of this theoretical approach with regard to understanding the leadership role and effects of CEOs. We present two alternative new models that incorporate the constructs of strategic change, CEO charisma, and perceived environmental uncertainty. Data are also presented, suggesting mixed support for the models. Suggestions are made with regard to future quantitative and qualitative research.

In this chapter, we embrace the recent phenomenon of early internationalizing firms with the goal of understanding these firms in light of decades of research on multinational firms, which has long stressed liabilities of foreignness. It is often implicitly assumed that the only way to reduce liabilities of foreignness is by doing business in foreign markets and learning about the local business environment. However, in this chapter, we focus on several distinctive antecedent firm characteristics that have been shown to facilitate early international expansion by firms, but which are not commonly considered in the international business literature. We perform a systematic review of the literature on early internationalizing firms (following David & Han, 2004), based on the seminal work of Oviatt and McDougall (1994) to guide our analysis of early internationalizing firms and to identify important ways in which these firms differ from multinational firms. We argue that long-standing arguments about the impact of liabilities of foreignness on firm foreign expansion apply to newly internationalizing firms, but that these liabilities are reduced by the experiences and knowledge of the founders and top managers in these firms acquired prior to the inception of these firms.

In order to elaborate the concept of resources (a key component of the well-established resource-based theory of the firm) this paper concentrates on exploring and elaborating the associated concept of competences, in particular distinctive and core competences. This exploration includes an examination of the extant literature, alongside and in parallel with, an extensive body of action research undertaken over 15 years and with 44 top management teams engaged in strategy making. As such the concepts are scrutinized both in terms of their theoretical underpinnings as well as their impact on practice. The research reinforces the view that distinctiveness emerges most powerfully from the identification (or creation) of unique bundles or combinations of competences and that effective and meaningful core competences can be identified from understanding and refining the links between competences and organizational goals. The resultant conceptualization of the systemic competence/goals structure emerges from the interaction of theory and practice.

Although management scholars have displayed a strong interest in top management teams, surprisingly little research has been devoted to the international dimensions of top management teams including their international diversity and their societal and cultural underpinnings. This paper provides a recent overview of empirical studies addressing the international dimension of top management teams and identifies avenues for future research. Particular attention is paid to the role of the institutional and cultural societal context in shaping the configuration of top management.