Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Publication
    Temporal Focus, CEO Succession and Firm Performance During an Industry Discontinuity
    (Academy of Management, 2022-07)
    The replacement of the chief executive starts a new chapter in the history of a firm. To offer a more nuanced understanding of the succession-performance relationship, we introduce CEO temporal focus as an important individual-level contingency. Acknowledging the temporal heterogeneity of outgoing and incoming CEOs, we argue that a shift in CEO temporal focus towards a present-oriented successor promotes adaptation, while keeping disruption at moderate levels. A shift towards a future-oriented successor, however, strengthens disruption, preventing the successor from reaping potential adaptation benefits. Based on a unique sample of private banks in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, we find that a shift towards present focus enhances, whereas a shift towards future focus decreases post-succession performance. Our findings extend the multi-level contingency framework of CEO succession and provide novel insights into the role of subjective temporality during a major industry-level discontinuity.
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  • Publication
    The Joint Effects of Regulatory and Temporal Focus on Firm Survival During Industry Discontinuity
    (Academy of Management, 2021-08) ;
    Regulatory focus theory has been used in prior research to explain how motivations guide strategic action. This study examines the previously unexamined link between the top management regulatory focus and organizational mortality. We argue and find that the effects of regulatory focus unfold over time as companies addressing a discontinuous change in the industry. Using a sample of 116 private banks from 2009 to 2018, we find that prevention focus reduces mortality at the inception, while promotion focus becomes a more important determinant for firm survival as the change unfolds. In addition, we argue that top management’s temporal focus moderates these effects. We find that future focus strengthens the effects of promotion focus on mortality. Contrary to our expectations, however, past focus does not strengthen, but instead weakens the effect of prevention focus on mortality. Our findings provide novel insights on the interactive effects of regulatory and temporal focus on organizational survival during industry discontinuities.
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  • Publication
    The Role of Temporal Attitude in Strategic Decision-Making
    (Strategic Management Society, 2021-09) ;
    Following recent calls to better account for subjective perceptions of time in strategy research, we put forward a novel construct that we label as ‘temporal attitude’. Based on the different combinations of temporal focus and affective focus, we identify four temporal attitudes: nostalgia (positive past attitude), regret (negative past attitude), hopefulness (positive future attitude) and fear (negative future attitude). Using this categorization, we argue that top management team’s temporal attitude is associated with subsequent firm performance in an environmental discontinuity. Based on a unique sample of private banks in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, we find that hopefulness enhances, whereas regret reduces firm profitability. Our study contributes to the upper-echelons literature and improves our understanding of the joint effects of temporal and affective focus in strategy research.
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  • Publication
    The role of temporality on organizational performance during an environmental crisis in the Swiss private banking industry
    (Universität St. Gallen, 2023-02-20)
    To advance what we know about the role of subjective time in strategic management, I study the impact of top managements temporal foci from an upper echelons perspective. In this dissertation, I aim to provide novel insights regarding (a) the effects of temporal foci on organizational performance, (b) the interplay of temporal focus and objective temporality, (c) the interplay of temporal focus and affectivity and (d) the role of temporal foci during an environmental crisis. Three empirical studies are presented herein, all of which are situated in the private banking industry. Due to the fall of banking secrecy in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, the private banks under study have been confronted with a major discontinuity at the industry level. Study 1 examines the effects of top managements temporal and regulatory foci on firm survival. Adopting a dynamic perspective, I assess how these relationships evolve over time as institutional change gradually unfolds. Study 2 examines the joint effects of top managements temporal and affective foci on organizational performance. Applying the micro-level construct of temporal attitude to strategy research, I acknowledge that positive and negative affect provide important triggers for past- and future-oriented strategic action. Study 3 introduces successor CEOs temporal foci as a cognitive contingency to the succession-performance relationship. I argue that these temporal foci influence the liability of newness that is typically associated with executive succession because they either strengthen or weaken successors adaptability to their new positions as CEOs as well as their contributions to the knowledge base of top management teams (TMTs).