Title: The impact of CEO succession on top management teams and the degree of firm internationalisation

Authors: Wen-Ting Lin, Yunshi Liu

Addresses: Department of Business Administration, College of Management, National Chung Cheng University, Chiayi, Taiwan. ' Department of Business Administration, College of Management, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Yunlin, Taiwan

Abstract: In this paper, we used CEO succession events to explore the effects of the post-succession Top Management Team (TMT) structural changes on a firm|s change in its degree of internationalisation. In addition, we examined the moderating effects of the industrial environment on the relationship between post-succession TMT changes and a firm|s change in its degree of internationalisation. We tested hypotheses by using 2000–2005 data from 185 succession observations from listed companies in Taiwan as a research sample. The results show that a firm will opt for higher levels of change in its international scale degree when there is a high degree of structural change that occurs in its post-succession TMT. Moreover, the impact of post-succession TMT changes to a firm|s degree of international scale increases significantly when the firm faces a munificent or complex industry environment.

Keywords: CEO succession; post-succession TMT change; internationalisation degree change; industry environment; top management teams; Taiwan; firm internationalisation; international management; structural change.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2011.039941

European Journal of International Management, 2011 Vol.5 No.3, pp.253 - 270

Published online: 11 Jan 2015 *

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