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Explorer CEOs: The effect of CEO career variety on large firms’ relative exploration orientation
(2018)
Prior studies demonstrate that firms need to make smart trade-off decisions between exploration and exploitation activities in order to increase performance. Chief executive officers (CEOs) are principal decision makers of a firm’s strategic posture. In this study, we theorize and empirically examine how relative exploration orientation of large publicly listed firms varies based on the career variety of their CEOs – that is, how diverse the professional experiences of executives were prior to them becoming CEOs. We further argue that the heterogeneity and structure of the top management team moderates the impact of CEO career variety on firms’ relative exploration orientation. Based on multisource secondary data for 318 S&P 500 firms from 2005 to 2015, we find that CEO career variety is positively associated with relative exploration orientation.
Interestingly, CEOs with high career varieties appear to be less effective in pursuing exploration, when they work with highly heterogeneous and structurally interdependent top management teams.
Digital start-ups are perceived as an engine for innovation and job promotor. While success factors for non-IT start-ups have already been extensively researched, this study sheds light on digital entrepreneurs, whose business model relies primarily on services based on digital technologies. Applying the Grounded Theory method, we identify relevant environmental success factors for digital entrepreneurs. The study’s research contribution is threefold. First, we provide 16 relevant and less relevant environmental success factors, which enables a comparison with prior identified factors. We found out that several prior environmental success factors, such as accessibility to transportation or the availability of land and facilities are less relevant for a digital entrepreneur. Second, we derive and discuss hypotheses for the influence of these factors on digital start-up success. Third, we present a theoretical model that lays the foundation for explaining the environmental influence on digital
entrepreneurship success.