TOP MANAGEMENT TEAM DIVERSITY AND FIRM PERFORMANCE IN DIGITAL ERA

The paper sheds light on impactful diversity dimensions of upper echelons across German companies and their impact on the appointment of Chief Digitalization/Information Officer during the turbulent years of internet of things and digitalization in the second decade of the twenty-first century. The study consists of a literature review on diversity across senior management of German firms in a digital era characterized by global business technological digital disruption. The paper discusses how the emerging phenomena of diversity across top management affect firm performance during the period of incremental innovation and turbulent digital trasnformation of multinational firms. The novelty of the study is nested in the fact that it provides evidence from top management teams' diversity from the advanced markets, such as Germany, where digitalization is one of the priorities of the German government but also of the German business in order to drive long-term firms' performance and firms' sustainability. The motivation behind conducting the research on top management teams' diversity across top German companies in the digital era is the fact that the crucial importance of senior management skills, competencies and knowledge are key factors for firm performance and prosperity. Moreover, in Germany, many of the most successful firms have appointed executive positions in their top management in order to manage the rapid shift towards more digitalized business and higher firm performance in a volatile global business environment. Study results show that top management team diversity positively affects the appointment of Chief Digitalization/Information Officer. Also, the paper results show that firms with incumbent Chief Digital Officers in their top management team tend to be more intact with the digital era than firms that have not appointed any Chief Digitalization Officer.