The Background on Executive Background: An Integrative Review

Abstract

This study reviews several decades of research on the topic of executive background, defined here as the total of an executive's “experience, knowledge, and education.” We consider work from both management and nonmanagement sources and from both macro and micro sources within management. Our review of 216 published empirical articles is structured around a series of widely studied executive background characteristics and categories, including tenure, functional background, knowledge and education, outsider/insider status, other professional experiences, and experiences outside the workplace. This narrative review is underpinned and informed by an inductively derived framework comprised of five key dimensions that represent distinct ways in which specific experiences can be conceptualized: visibility, timing, frequency, discreteness, and agency. We conclude our narrative review with a quantitative, bibliometric analysis illustrating some of the key patterns within the most recent work in this domain. Finally, we use the insights arising from our review to provide a set of theoretical and methodological recommendations for future work in this area.

Hitting the “Grass Ceiling”: Golfing CEOs, Exclusionary Schema, and Career Outcomes for Female Executives

“…More broadly, we hope that our research can provide inspiration for future work on executive experiences outside the workplace, which-as recent review indicates (Campbell et al, 2023)-is rather scarce to date. Raffiee, Fehder, and Teodoridis (2022) provide a fascinating possibility of assessing CEO personal hobbies and values via their "revealed preferences" through a credit card spending database.…”

“…As cringe-worthy as this statement may be, over 25 years later, it does not seem like that much progress has been made. The “lean in” and its millennial “girl boss” counterpart put the pressure on women to break through the corporate ranks by asserting their seat at the table and “hacking” the system (in the case of the latter; Campbell et al, 2023). Highly visible “girl bosses” synonymous with the movement, such as Emily Weiss at Glossier and Sophia Amoruso of Nasty Gal, left amid reports of toxic work environments, including reports of racism and illegally firing pregnant employees (Goodkind, 2022).…”

“…First, we contribute to upper echelons theory (Hambrick & Mason, 1984) and the strategic leadership literature more broadly by introducing the notion of CEO exclusionary schema, theorizing about the way it can develop and taking the first steps to illustrate its effects. Second, we bring in role of the CEO's out-of-work experiences (here, golf and elite education) and show how they can affect organizational diversity and inclusion efforts, thus contributing to the budding stream of work on executive experiences outside of the workplace and their influence on organizational outcomes (for a review, see Campbell, Bilgili, Crossland, & Ajay, 2023). Third, more broadly, we add to the growing stream of research on the experiences of minority executives in corporate settings (e.g., Bertrand & Hallock, 2001; Cook & Glass, 2014; Hill, Upadhyay, & Beekun, 2015; Kulich, Trojanowski, Ryan, Haslam, & Renneboog, 2011; Lee & James, 2007).…”

Where the past meets the present: Upward mobility, environmental stimuli, and CEOs’ investment in corporate social responsibility

“…Second, our results are not intended to suggest that social class background should ever be used as a criterion in selection decisions. Rather, this study aims to provide top executives with a more comprehensive understanding of how their own experiences and trajectories have the potential to shape their values, attitudes, and helping behavior (for a review, see Campbell et al, 2023). Indeed, encouraging executive reflexivity seems particularly important in light of the unique position of power, authority, and political influence enjoyed by top executives of major organizations (see Kish-Gephart et al, 2023; Moergen and Kish-Gephart, 2023 for discussions of reflexivity).…”

The Impact of Executive Green Incentives and Top Management Team Characteristics on Corporate Value in China: The Mediating Role of Environment, Social and Government Performance

“…The active implementation of ESG by the executive team is intricately linked to their educational background, core values, distinctive personality traits, heightened environmental awareness, prior experience in ESG implementation and the length of the tenure held by the CEO [25][26][27][28][29]. An executive consensus on the imperative to safeguard the environment is indispensable for ESG implementation in businesses, but it also necessitates a substantial investment in green technology during the preproduction phase.…”