{"title":"Managing institutional distance: Examining how firm-specific advantages impact foreign subsidiary CEO staffing","authors":"Marketa Rickley, S. Karim","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2520326","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Based on the insight that superior access to knowledge can help foreign firms overcome liabilities of foreignness, we examine whether possession of firm-specific advantages shifts foreign firms’ CEO staffing strategies from local managers, who provide host-market insight, toward expatriates, who possess knowledge transfer and coordination capabilities. We find that, as institutional distance increases, firm-specific advantages from multinationality, regional agglomeration, and host-country experience substitute for the host-market insight of local CEOs. Foreign firms with such advantages instead staff the CEO role with expatriates. Our results are practically relevant to MNCs seeking to allocate a limited talent pool across different institutional contexts.","PeriodicalId":444911,"journal":{"name":"CGN: General Management (Topic)","volume":"71 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2018-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"32","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"CGN: General Management (Topic)","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2520326","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 32
Abstract
Abstract Based on the insight that superior access to knowledge can help foreign firms overcome liabilities of foreignness, we examine whether possession of firm-specific advantages shifts foreign firms’ CEO staffing strategies from local managers, who provide host-market insight, toward expatriates, who possess knowledge transfer and coordination capabilities. We find that, as institutional distance increases, firm-specific advantages from multinationality, regional agglomeration, and host-country experience substitute for the host-market insight of local CEOs. Foreign firms with such advantages instead staff the CEO role with expatriates. Our results are practically relevant to MNCs seeking to allocate a limited talent pool across different institutional contexts.