The Impact Of TMT Environmental Cognition On Competitive Actions And Corporate Performance

It's a core issue in the strategic management field that how companies obtain excess profits and sustain competitive advantages in a rapidly changing external environment.Hambrick and Mason firstly put forward Upper Echelons Perspective in 1984,and they considered that top management team(TMT),which was the key to obtaining the competitive advantages,not only dominates the power of decision making and controls the allocation of key resources,but also affects the firm's competitive actions in view of the cognitive differences.Around this core issue,scholars have built many theoretical and analysis models,Although many researchers have found that TMT play an important role in improving corporate performance,there is little research on the process of "environmental cognition-behavior-performance" and the mechanism on the process by the heterogeneity of the TMT demographic characteristics.Management practice shows that the cognition of TMT is affected by their own knowledge,experience,demographic characteristics(age,gender,educational background,work experience),which play an important role in making competitive actions that firms take to maintain competitive advantages.Existing research is absorbed in the impact of individual members,but ignoring the influence of the multi-attribute heterogeneity of TMT demographic characteristics on the whole team's cooperative relationship.Therefore,this study attempts to clarify the relationship among environmental cognition,competition actions,team faultlines and corporate performance,which will not only enrich the relevant theory,but also help the enterprise's decision-making.In order to clarify the impact process and boundary conditions of TMT environmental cognition on corporate performance,this paper constructs an integrated analysis model of environmental cognition,competition actions,team faultlines and corporate performance.With 200 high-tech enterprises in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets as samples to test and analyze the theoretical model,the paper draws the following conclusions:There is a positive correlation between the TMT environmental cognition and the competitive actions of the firm,competitive actions play a mediating role between TMT environmental cognition and corporate performance.What is more,the team faultlines has a moderating effect on the relationship among environmental cognition,competitive action and corporate performance.The relevant analysis of this paper will help to further clarify the important influence of the top management team cognition on the enterprise in the dynamic market environment,which is of great significance to the cooperation of the top management team and the formulation of the strategic action.