Executive migration and strategic change: The effect of top manager movement on product-market entry

This study examines how the movement of top managers across organizations (executive migration) over an 18-year period in the semiconductor industry influences strategic change, specifically, entry into new product markets. Results support the argument that executive migration brings managers into the organization with prior exposure to different products and strategies, which in turn is reflected in subsequent product-market entry decisions by the executive's new firm. Results also show that the effects of executive migration are influenced by attributes of the executive and characteristics of the top management team of the focal firm. The effects of executive migration on product-market entry are stronger when the new managers came from the functions of R&D and engineering, when they reported to the chief executive in their former organization, and when they had greater industry experience. Attributes of the focal firm's top management team also appear to moderate the influence of the new executive. Smaller top management teams and teams with shorter tenures demonstrate a stronger relationship between executive migration and strategic change.(.)