This paper shows that top management structures in large US firms radically changed since the mid-1980s. While the number of managers reporting directly to the CEO doubled, the growth was driven primarily by functional managers rather than general managers. Using panel data on senior management...

Recent research has led to the empirical regularity that firm growth rate distributions are heavy tailed. This finding implies that a few firms experience spectacular growth rates and decline, but that most firms have marginal growth rates. The literature on high growth firms shows that high...

POSCO has played a major role in Korea’s economic development by supplying domestic manufacturers with high-quality, low-cost steel products. Despite its initial disadvantage and lack of resources such as capital, technology, and raw materials, it has emerged as a world-class steel maker in a...

Research on functional members of top management teams (TMTs) has increasingly drawn interest to the strategic management field over the past few years. Studies have documented the rise of the chief financial officer (CFO) to pivotal importance and considerable power within the organization. By...

This paper focuses on the role of managerial cognition as a source of heterogeneity in firm strategies and performance. We link differences in mental models to differences in decision rules and performance in a management simulation. Our results show more accurate mental models lead to better...

We investigate how luck, namely, changes in a firm’s performance beyond the CEO’s control, affects strategic risk-taking. Fusing upper echelons theory with insights from psychology and behavioral strategy research, we hypothesize that there is a positive association between luck and...

The participation of women in top-level corporate boards (or rather the lack of it) is subject to intense public debate. Several countries are considering legally binding quotas to increase the share of women on boards. Indeed, research on board diversity suggests positive effects of gender...

This paper analyzes the determinants of women on the boards of directors based on a panel sample of all Danish companies in the private sector with more than 50 employees. The share of women on the boards of directors was 12 percent in 2007 and has only slowly increased during the period...

This paper investigates the relationship between gender of the CEO and composition of the board of directors (female chairman and share of women in the boardroom) and firm's risk attitudes measured as variability in four firm outcome variables (investments, profits, return to equity, and sales)....