Corporate Leaders in Britain and America: A Cross-National Analysis
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Kingdom.He has publishedin the StrategicManagementJournal,the Journal of the Royal StatisticalSociety, and the Journal of Business Strategy.He is a directorof,
andconsultant to,severalUKcorporations activeintransatlantic acquisitions. 15
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JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONALBUSINESSSTUDIES,FALL 1987
a morepositiverole,culminating in the "upperechelon"theoryof Hambrick andMason(1984).Thiscontendsthatthecharacteristics of thetopmanagement team(TMT)will be a partialpredictorof organisational between performance competingcompanies.Whereaselementsof theirtheoryhavebeensupported andD'Aveni1985)oracross empirically withinUScrisiscompanies(Hambrick domesticUK industrysectorperformance (Norburn1986),as yet no datahas emergedattheTMTlevelona cross-national, basis. multicompany A focusfor testingthisextensionis providedby the intensityof transatlantic commercialactivitybetweenGreatBritainand the UnitedStates,for within the last five years,the exchangeratehas variedbetween? = $2.43 and ? - $1.05,a situation whichhascausedeachcountryinturnto becomeextremely attractiveas a locationforcommercialactivity(Groupof 30, 1984).Thishas takena numberof forms-a strategicstockholding(GeneralMotors/British Leyland),joint-venture(Rolls Royce/Boeing),start-up(HermanMiller),or outrightacquisition(Hanson/SCM).However,sufficientexamplesexist,albeit anecdotal,to suggestthat successfulimplementation of these cross-national strategiesby localmanagement mayhavebeenconstrained by the assumption on the partof the controllingcorporation thattop management characteristics aresimilar.Forexample,the MidlandBank/Crocker or the "embarrassment," HowardJohnson/Imperial Groupdebacle,bothacquisitions havingbeenrecently divestedupona criterionof managerial If TMTdifferences do incompatibility. existbetweenthetwonationsacrossa widesectionof companies,modification of strategic implementation to encompass thesevariations maywellbesuggested. Further,in the morecompetitivecircumstances of an uninvitedbid or entry intodomestically dominatedoligopolistic industries (e.g.,US steelindustry: UK dairyprocessing industry), supportwillbegivento Tuckman's (1984)argument, thatknowledgeof defendingmanagements' characteristics thataffectstrategic positioning is crucial.
Thisresearch,therefore,testsfor the extentof similaritybetweenBritishand Americantop managers, its majorproposition beingthatin termsof corporate "experiences," domesticandeducational andin personalbeliefswith influences, regardto managerial successtraitsandaspiration levels,significant dissimilarity will be demonstrated. Shouldthisproposition be supported, its findingsshould have significanceto scholarsof inwardand outwardinvestment;to US and UK companiesconsideringacquisitionsin each other'scountries;to top managementevaluatingmanagerialcompatibilityin potentialUS/UK joint ventures: andto thosecompaniesseekingcompetitiveadvantagein eachother's domesticmarkets
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