Interfaces of Strategic Leaders: A Conceptual Framework, Review, and Research Agenda

Abstract

Interfaces are of growing importance for theorizing and testing the influence of strategic leaders on firm behavior and actions. But despite their relevance and ubiquity, the lack of a commonly accepted definition and unifying framework has hindered researchers’ ability to take stock, synthesize, and systematize extant knowledge. We first develop an encompassing definition and organizing framework to review 122 prior studies across three decades. We then chart promising directions for future research around three concepts central to the framework and review: (1) Why do interfaces occur? (2) What happens at these interfaces? and (3) What are the impacts of interfaces? Together, the encompassing definition, framework, review, and specific directions for future research provide the much needed platform to agglutinate research and advance strategic leader interfaces as the next frontier of strategic leadership research.

A temporal perspective on the relationship between top management team internationalization and firms' innovativeness

“…Of the three variables hypothesized to impact the relation between international TMTs and firm innovativeness, CEO age is found to play a significant role. In line with prior studies (e.g., Hambrick & Fukutomi, ; Simsek et al, ), this finding particularly stresses the predominant role and superior discretion of the CEO and specifically his/her age. More specifically, our analysis suggests that more elderly CEOs attenuate the gains in firm innovativeness introduced by international TMTs.…”

“…The CEO is considered the most powerful individual in the TMT and acts not only as a leader but also as an integrator (Buyl, Boone, Hendriks, & Matthyssens, 2011;Carmeli, Schaubroeck, & Tishler, 2011) who identifies and effectively combines the TMT's inherent skills and knowledge (Georgakakis, Greve, & Ruigrok, 2017). Accordingly, the CEO exerts some special influence on the TMT's functioning, output, and performance (Simsek, Heavey, & Fox, 2018). The innovation literature also investigates the particular role of the CEO and regards him/her as an important enabler of innovation (Yadav, Prabhu, & Chandy, 2007), whose cognition influences resource allocations, such as R&D (Ahuja & Katila, 2004;Visser & Faems, 2015).…”

“…Our findings suggest that CEO age is an aspect to be considered in dynamic leadership studies as the CEO's age obviously changes the dynamics within and decision-making of the TMT. By shedding light on underlying influencing patterns within TMTs, we also add novel insights to research on the CEO-TMT interface-a topic that has attracted increasing attention within upper echelons research (Georgakakis et al, 2017;Simsek et al, 2018).…”

Metacritiques of Upper Echelons Theory: Verdicts and Recommendations for Future Research

“…Earlier reviews focused primarily on the need to understand the mediating role of TMT dynamics (e.g., Carpenter et al, 2004; Finkelstein et al, 2009; Hambrick, 2007), and here we have seen increased focus over the past decade. Indeed, research on “strategic interfaces” has grown to the point that it now merits literature reviews of its own (e.g., Bromiley & Rau, 2016; Georgakakis, Heyden, Oehmichen, & Ekanayake, in press; Simsek et al, 2018). Strategic interfaces concern the “social situations in which the attributes, aspirations, and/or activities of strategic leaders and/or salient stakeholders come into contact with and influence each other” (Simsek et al, 2018: 283).…”

“…As research has accumulated, several dozen literature reviews related to UET have been published. These reviews typically examine specific aspects of UET research (e.g., CEOs’ impact on firm performance; executive cognition, or personality; Smith, Hill, Wallace, Recendes, & Judge, 2018; Wang et al, 2016) or discuss its contributions to other research streams—for example, the literature on organizational change, strategic interfaces, or managerial risk taking (Hoskisson, Chirico, Zyung, & Gambeta, 2017; Hutzschenreuter, Kleindienst, & Greger, 2012; Oreg & Berson, 2018; Simsek, Heavey, & Fox, 2018). Such work has facilitated consolidation of the research pertinent to specific research areas and provided broad support for UET’s validity and relevance to strategic management scholarship.…”