This cumulative dissertation investigates the role and implications of top managers in firms. By building on two influential contemporary phenomena – internationalization and digitalization – and by examining top managers from a multitude of conceptional and methodological angles, the dissertation provides novel insights to upper echelons research. The first study examines the association between top management team (TMT) internationalization and firm innovativeness and argues that the accumulation of international knowledge and resources in the TMT benefits firm innovativeness. The second study analyzes the association between CEO internationalization and firms’ strategic risk-taking, paying particular attention to various governance mechanisms that may influence this relationship. The third study explores the role and facilitating actions of top managers in response to the digital transformation. Overall, this dissertation contributes toward a more fine-grained understanding of top managers and their individual characteristics. Given the contemporary relevance of the topics under consideration, the presented findings are of significant value for both theorists and practitioners.:Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Scope of the dissertation and research gaps 1.2 Theoretical foundation 1.3 Empirical foundation 1.4 Research purpose and scientific contribution Chapter 2: Research article 1 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Theory and hypotheses 2.3 Methodology 2.4 Results 2.5 Discussion and conclusions 2.6 Limitations and future research Chapter 3: Research article 2 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Theory and hypotheses 3.3 Methodology 3.4 Results 3.5 Discussion and conclusion 3.6 Limitations and future research Chapter 4: Research article 3 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Theoretical background 4.3 Data and method 4.4 Findings 4.5 Discussion References

Background - Women are underrepresented in top management positions all over the globe. This also applies to Sweden, despite the country's long progressive and high material prosperity. This situation is particularly evident in the banking sector, where women represent approximately half of the workforce. However, in the four largest banks in Sweden, women only occupy 33,25 percent in the highest management teams and 34,5 percent on the boards. This phenomenon is often referred to as “the glass ceiling,” a set of barriers that hinder women’s accessibility to top management positions. This underrepresentation is, in turn, likely to result in a loss of potential human resources due to organizations not searching for competent candidates in approximately half of the population. Further, banks are associated with a lot of power in the society, where they have a significant impact, with a critical role in the economy, contributing to financial growth. Initiatives by for instance the EU Commission to increase gender diversity are on the high agenda. Consequently, the subject of understanding and overcoming these barriers stands high on the agenda of both politicians and researchers. Purpose - The purpose of this study is to identify barriers among women toward reaching top management positions in the commercial banking sector, as well as how women in top management positions have overcome them. By investigating the barriers and how women overcome them, we will contribute with a deeper understanding and meaningful insights to political and managerial practitioners on how they can identify and help women overcome the barriers. The foundation of the theoretical framework in this study will be based on Becker’s (1957) theory of discrimination, Social role theory, and System justification theory will lay the foundation of the theoretical framework in this study. Method - This study is based on qualitative research with a multiple case study in the banking sector in Sweden. Conclusion - We conclude that the most common barriers are based on stereotypical beliefs, the balance between private life and work, biases and discrimination, and organizational culture and structure. How to overcome these barriers is built on supporting organizations, an equal private life situation, and specifically identified personality traits.

With the ongoing globalization and changes in the economic environment, organizations need to be flexible and adaptable towards new situations and opportunities. In a context where firms strategically reach across national borders, firms are encountering differing cultural backgrounds. Multinational corporations (MNCs) are confronted with the question of how to fill executive positions. The need for employees with international expertise arises to reap the advantage of nationality diversity by matching the complexity of the global environment with the right level of board capital. Such firm managers must work in increasingly international contexts and cross-cultural environments. Scholars have regarded diversity as an essential element that helps organizations and their executives to deal with uncertainties arising from globalization. (Koles 2014). The top executives of an organization are regarded as an essential criterion for firm´s success. Top managers have considerable influence over the fate of the organizations they lead. These trends have led to increasing instability in classic employment relationships and show greater diversity and mobility within organizational and occupational boundaries (Dokko/Wilk/Rothbard 2009; Greenhaus/Callanan 2012; Biemann/Zacher/Feldman 2012; Koch et al. 2017). This dissertation further aims at advancing our empirical understanding of top managers diversity, internationalisation and their careers. The three research manuscripts that form the core of this thesis advance research on top managers in several ways and extend knowledge in the area of executive characteristics. All three manuscripts are anchored in the European context and address topics that are relevant yet underexplored in extant, mostly centred in the US and Western economies top management literature (Tosi/Greckhamer 2004; Carter et al. 2009; Boyd et al. 2012; Dauth 2012).

Background: Innovation is widely recognized to be instrumental for the sustained competitiveness of businesses, including family businesses. However, many family firms are unable to achieve innovation on their own, necessitating the shift towards collaborative innovation. Yet, due to the overlap of family and business, innovation in family firms is characterized by the so-called“innovation paradox” where family firms usually possess a greater ability to innovate but lack the willingness to do so. Accordingly, considerable attention has been given to the factors that affect the willingness of family firms in an attempt to understand and possibly resolve the innovation paradox. Purpose: The purpose of the present study is to explore how the degree of family involvement in the top management team (TMT) influences the family firm’s willingness to engage in collaborative innovation and how that influences the preferred type of collaborative innovation. By exploring the link between the degree of family involvement in TMT and the willingness in the context of collaborative innovation, our study aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the innovation paradox associated with family businesses, and thereby offer important insights to practitioners, both from the family and non-family perspective. Method: Our methods were based on qualitative research with an exploratory research design and multiple case-study methods of eleven family firms. Through semi-structured interviews with both family and non-family TMT members, we gained insights into the role of family influence on family firms. We also used a cross-case analysis to compare the cases and indicate similarities and differences in order to draw our conclusions. Conclusion: The results of the study show that the degree of family involvement in the top management teams influences the family firms’ willingness to engage in collaborative innovation. Depending on the degree of family involvement as represented by the respective configurations, five patterns of influence manifestations (IM) are identified.

Bakgrund: Kvinnors väg till toppositioner inom näringslivet kantas av fler hinder än deras manliga motsvarigheter. En anledning kan vara de antaganden som finns kring kvinnors riskundvikande. Liknande antaganden finns även när det kommer till ålder och ämbetstid i beslutsfattande positioner. Det strategiska risktagandet är ett resultat av det strategiska beslutsfattande styrelser och ledningsgrupper utför, varpå intresse finns i att se om samband råder mellan variablerna eller om antagandena är felaktiga. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att få ökad förståelse för relationen mellan ledningsgruppens och styrelsens sammansättning och bolags strategiska risktagande. Metod: Det är en kvantitativ metod som appliceras på studien med en deduktiv ansats. Teorierna som behandlas är Prospect theory, Social identity approach och Upper echelons. Datainsamlingen utgår från nyckeltal från respektive bolags årsredovisningar och Infotorg Företag. Resultat: Alla hypoteser förkastas och slutsatsen blir därför att kvinnor, ålder och styrelsens respektive ledningsgruppens ämbetstid inte har något specifikt inflytande på det strategiskt risktagande då det inte hittades några samband för detta. / Background: Women's path to top positions in organisations is lined with more obstacles than their male counterparts. One reason may be the assumptions that exist about women's risk avoidance. Similar assumptions also exist when it comes to age and tenure in decision-making positions. The strategic risk-taking is a result of the strategic decision-making boards and top management teams carry out, whereupon there is interest in seeing if there is a connection between the variables or if the assumptions are false. Purpose: The study aims to gain an increased understanding of the relationship between the composition of the board of directors and the top management team, and companies' strategic risk-taking. Method: It is a quantitative method that is applied to the study with a deductive approach. The theories covered are Prospect theory, Social identity approach and Upper echelons. The data collection is based on key figures from each company's annual reports and Infotorg Företag. Conclusion: All hypotheses are rejected and the conclusion is therefore that women, age and the term of office of the board and management team have no specific influence on the strategic risk-taking as no connection was found for this.

Thesis (MBA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2019 / This study examined whether the presence of women in top management positions affects firms‘ performance. This study became necessary given that, whilst there is a growing call for gender equity in top managerial positions, many companies are still hesitant, as some trust that the presence of women in top management positions might weaken their market value. The main purpose of this research was to analyse the link between women in top management positions and net profit, sales turnover and share price. Secondary data on women in top management positions and companies‘ performance were collected from integrated report archives of twenty-nine (29) companies listed in the FTSE/JSE Responsible index for six years, 2010 to 2015. This study was theoretically inclined on the Resource Based Theory and related current literature. A quantitative research design was adopted. Regression statistics utilizing the Excel Spreadsheet software was used for data analysis. Findings from the statistical analysis disclosed the following: within the twenty-nine (29) companies examined, firstly, existing positive relationship between women in top management and net profit, although not significant. Secondly, there was a negative relationship between women in top management and sales turnover. Thirdly, there was a positive relationship between women in top management and share price, although not significant. The research implication and contribution are that companies that encourage women to ascend management positions may not necessarily lose market value and net profit as feared by some companies around the world. In addition, the study recommends that women in top management should have a deputy that works closely with them such that when they take family leave, these deputies will function without company performance, such as sales, dropping its value. The findings provide further research agenda on the linkage between women in top management positions, net profit, sales turnover and share price using a larger sample of companies across industries.

Human capital assessment is an integral part of the in-depth evaluation conducted by Venture Capitalists (VCs) before an investment decision. Furthermore, an effective collaboration between external investors and the founding team can be vital for the success of a startup venture. This thesis aims to improve this assessment and collaboration by providing an empirical account of historically successful Swedish tech startups and their founding teams (FT). We employ semi-structured interviews with 13 entrepreneurs who in total have founded over 50 ventures in order to deduce patterns to the characteristics, compositions and views of successful founding management teams. We compile and discuss their views concerning aspects such as organizational culture, team performance and their relationships with external financiers. The focus of this thesis was in part guided by our commissioner, Almi Invest. Based on our interviews and literature review, we present several findings which may be of interest to both investors and entrepreneurs. Some of our key findings are that successful Swedish tech startups are generally composed of diverse teams where the founders share some previous association and complement each other with regards to both competencies and personalities. They view culture and vision as important aspects, with values acting as the uniting factor that drives cohesion and performance. We also find that their views are largely influenced by previous experiences. Finally, we highlight some perceived inefficiencies in the collaboration between investors and entrepreneurs, mainly with regards to post-investment activities and the process of raising capital. Our findings suggest a lack of transparency between entrepreneurs and financiers regarding the investor activity levels, where entrepreneurs generally feel that VCs fall short on their promises. We suggest some areas of improvement where VCs might tune their practices to better suit the needs of their portfolio companies and improve overall performance.

It is recognised that gender equality and diversity are essential for building successful organisations. To tackle the global challenges characterised by economies today, one must ensure equal opportunities for all, both men and women. Organisations have acknowledged the benefits of a more gender equal workforce and are starting to take action. But what are the results of such actions? We have found that a lot of research is focused on the sources of gender inequality in organisations but little on the efficacy of different actions to counter those inequalities. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how active gender equality work can impact an organisation. A case study of an organisation in the IT consultancy industry in Sweden is carried out where active gender equality work has been initiated through the internal project “the Gender Equality Project”. Empirical data gathered from interviews with employees from all levels of the organisation has been the main source of data collection and has worked as a base for the analysis and discussion. The research question that have guided our work is: How can active gender equality work impact the structure and culture within an organisation in a male-dominated industry? This thesis is based on a subjective approach, assuming that reality can be seen as a social construction and that humans create their own reality. This implies that the social world is viewed as a process which is created and recreated everyday through the usage of language, routines and actions. Further, this thesis argues that organisations should be seen as gendered and that assumptions about gender underlie the construction of organisations, resulting in a marginalisation of women which contributes to the maintenance of gender segregation in organisations. The findings show that active work with gender equality has resulted in structural and cultural impacts in several areas, such as more gender aware recruitment processes and external communication strategies as well as a culture which encourages employees to call out biases and defend gender equality initiatives. The findings also reveal an organisational structure which partly counteract the effects of gender equality work and a deficient communication of the purpose of the project which, currently, prevents it from becoming institutionalised. Much emphasis is put on the many middle managers in the organisation to bring the project forward and continue working with it, without clear expectations and guidance from the top management which has resulted in a halt and an inaction from the middle managers. / Jämställdhet och mångfald anses som essentiellt för att bygga framgångsrika organisationer. För att kunna tackla de globala utmaningarna som världen står inför, måste lika möjligheter för både kvinnor och män kunna säkerställas. Fler och fler organisationer bekräftar fördelarna med en mer jämställd arbetskraft och börjar arbeta mot förändring. Men vad är resultatet av sådant arbete? Vi har funnit att tidigare forskning tenderar att fokusera på orsakerna till ojämställdhet i organisationer, istället för den verkan olika initiativ och arbete för att främja jämställdhet har. Uppsatsens syfte är att utvärdera hur aktivt jämställdhetsarbete kan påverka en organisation. En fallstudie har genomförts på en svensk organisation verksam inom IT-konsultbranschen, där aktivt jämställdhetsarbete har initierats genom ett internt projekt kallat “Jämställdhetsprojektet”. Den främsta källan till empirisk data härrör från intervjuer med anställda på alla nivåer i organisationen och denna data har lagt grunden för analys och diskussion. Den forskningsfråga som guidat oss i vårt arbete är följande: Hur kan aktivt jämställdhetsarbete påverka strukturen och kulturen i en organisation i en mansdominerad bransch? Uppsatsen tar en subjektiv ansats, och utgår från att verkligheten ses som en social konstruktion och att människor skapar sin egen verklighet. Detta medför att den sociala världen ses som en process som skapas och återskapas varje dag genom språkbruk, rutiner och handlingar. Vidare argumenteras det för att organisationer ska ses som könade och att antaganden om kön ligger till grund för konstruktionen av organisationer. Detta medför en marginalisering av kvinnor vilket bidrar till ett upprätthållande av könssegregeringen i organisationer. Resultaten visar att aktivt jämställdhetsarbete resulterar i strukturella och kulturella effekter. Effekterna kan ses genom en mer genusmedveten rekryteringsprocess och strategier för extern kommunikation men även en kultur där anställda uppmuntras till att uppmärksamma och motarbeta fördomar och försvara initiativ för jämställdhet. Resultaten belyser även en organisationsstruktur som till viss del motverkar effekterna av aktivt jämställdhetsarbete och en bristande kommunikation av projektets syfte, vilket i dagsläget hindrar en institutionalisering. Stor vikt läggs på organisationens mellanchefer att driva projektet framåt och fortsätta dess arbete. Det saknas dock klara förväntningar och vägledning från koncernledningen, vilket har resulterat i en stagnering och passivitet från organisationens mellanchefer.

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Background: Prior literature on diversity within BODs and TMTs is predominantly situated within thecontext of conventional organizations. However, sports clubs differ somewhat fromconventional organizations due to the inclusion of an additional performance metric toconsider, sports performance, which stands as their foremost priority. As sports clubsoperate under a heightened-paced landscape with far more external pressure, the necessityto extend governance research into this rather new area of investigation is of interest. Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to investigate the impact of BOD and TMT diversity on sportsclubs’ sports and financial performance and how media influence this relationship. Method: This thesis employs a deductive approach, utilizing a quantitative method, to investigatethe research objectives. The analysis is based on 144 observations from 24 distinct Swedishsports clubs. Depending on the performance metrics being measured, the data is examinedusing either multiple linear regression or ordinal regression. Conclusion: The study supports three of its eight hypotheses, namely that BOD diversity has a positiverelationship with sports performance and that media moderate the relationship betweenTMT diversity, partially BOD diversity and financial performance.