Top management teams, work experience diversity and the speed of international entrepreneurship: an upper echelons perspective

Author(s)
Michele Pinelli, Francesco Debellis, Claudia Pongelli, Tommaso Vallone
Abstract

Building upon Upper Echelon theory, this paper investigates how work experience diversity in top management teams (TMTs) affects the speed of international entrepreneurship. We hypothesize that TMTs with higher work-experience diversity provide firms with richer human and social capital, which allows them to more quickly identify and take advantage of business opportunities in foreign markets. We also argue that this effect is amplified (weakened) when the CEO shares significant (little) functional experience with the TMT members. The results of fixed effects Poisson regressions on a longitudinal sample of 111 UK-based firms over an 11-year long period support our hypotheses.

Organisation(s)
Department of Marketing and International Business
External organisation(s)
Venice School of Management, Universitá degli studi Link, Politecnico di Milano
Journal
Review of Managerial Science
ISSN
1863-6683
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11846-025-00913-x
Publication date
06-2025
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
502052 Business administration
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/5a4924b2-85e3-43e7-a2dc-bef7f4c63ef7