The impact of internationalization on top management team characteristics: A tacit knowledge perspective

This study surveys 37 U.S. companies to examine the effect of internationalization on the character of the top-management-team (TMT). The study concludes that the extent to which the firm is internationalized, the degree to which it uses an internal transaction mode in order to conduct its international business and the interdependence which exists across its international business units affect five dimensions of the TMT's character: assimilation of tacit knowledge about the firm's overseas operations; harmonization of tacit knowledge specific to members' international responsibilities; intensity of the team's international business knowledge advice network; capability to manage internal modes of conducting international business; and, dispersion of expertise with which to manage operations in different parts of the world. The study then demonstrates that existence of fit among these three company and five TMT dimensions is positively and significantly related to international performance.; This study draws on four broad theoretical perspectives. First, it draws on international business theory to establish the role of managers in the corporation's multinational network. Second, it draws on the resource-based view of the firm's strategy, to show that the firm's top-management-team is a unique, rare and inimitable resource. Third, it draws on institutional theory to demonstrate how the firm's TMT must develop personal knowledge of different environmental stimuli in the company's international markets. Finally, it draws on philosophy of science and its view of the dual nature of knowledge, tacit and articulate.; The study concludes that team member tacit knowledge of the firm's international business network which is acquired experientially and harmonized extensively is at the core of the character of the firm's TMT.