Top management team attributes and corporate entrepreneurship: A meta-analysis
Saeed S. Alasadi M. Yousafzai S.Y. Zahra S.A.
January 2025John Wiley and Sons Inc
Journal of Product Innovation Management
2025#42Issue 148 - 75 pp.
How do the attributes of a firms top management team (TMT) influence corporate entrepreneurship across organizational and national contexts? Drawing on upper echelons theory and the managerial discretion perspective, this meta-analytic study examines the dynamic relationship between TMTs attributes and corporate entrepreneurship, focusing on the moderating role of managerial discretion arising from organizational and national-level factors. To provide insights into the micro-foundations of firm behavior, we explore how key TMT attributes—diversity, size, transformational leadership, tenure, general human capital, and entrepreneurial human capital—affect corporate entrepreneurship. A comprehensive meta-analysis of 57 primary studies reveals that the effect of a TMTs attributes is context-dependent and is significantly influenced by the approach to managerial discretion taken by the country in which the firm operates. By showing that transformational leadership and the TMTs entrepreneurial human capital and size affect corporate entrepreneurship, while attributes like tenure, diversity, and general human capital have limited or no impact, our findings challenge the prevailing view that a standardized approach to the TMTs composition drives corporate entrepreneurship. The study also underscores the role of the national-level managerial discretion and finds that firms in institutional environments that feature low managerial discretion must align their TMT strategies with local institutional contexts to maximize their corporate entrepreneurship. These findings advance upper echelons theory by demonstrating that managerial discretion acts as a boundary condition in shaping how the TMTs attributes influence corporate entrepreneurship based on the national context. This research contributes to the fields of strategic and innovation management and offers practical insights for leaders who seek to harness the full potential of their TMTs.
corporate entrepreneurship , managerial discretion , meta-analysis , TMTs , upper echelons theory
Text of the article Перейти на текст статьи
Durham University Business School, Durham, United Kingdom
College of Business Administration, Taibah University, Madinah, Saudi Arabia
Graduate School of Business Nazarbayev University, Astana, Kazakhstan
Strategic Management & Entrepreneurship Department, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States
Durham University Business School
College of Business Administration
Graduate School of Business Nazarbayev University
Strategic Management & Entrepreneurship Department
10 лет помогаем публиковать статьи Международный издатель
Книга Публикация научной статьи Волощук 2026 Book Publication of a scientific article 2026