2021/11/22 by Sebastian Firk, Yannik Gehrke, André Hanelt +2 · 258 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Decision Sciences · #Business #Business Strategy and Innovation #Chief executive officer #Collateralized debt obligation #Computer science #Digital transformation #Economics #Innovation Diffusion and Forecasting #Innovation and Knowledge Management #Knowledge management #Management #Marketing #Officer #Political science #Relation (database) #Set (abstract data type)
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.lrp.2021.102166
published in Long Range Planning 55(3), 102166 (Elsevier BV)
openalex publication_date 2021/11/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/02
On their journey toward digital transformation, industrial firms need to embrace digital innovation. The top management team (TMT) is expected to set the course for digital innovation, which is a challenging endeavour given the novel and cross-functional nature of digital innovation. We draw on role theory to make sense of emerging role requirements for the TMT and combine this view with upper echelon theory to hypothesize on the specific TMT characteristics that are needed for digital innovation. We first theorize that firms could benefit from TMT digital knowledge. Second, we argue that the effective utilization of TMT digital knowledge can be fostered at internal TMT interfaces, such as between the chief executive officer (CEO), respectively a chief digital officer (CDO), and other top managers. Finally, we consider the TMT hierarchical structure as a contextual factor in the stimulation of TMT integration processes by integrative CEOs and CDOs. We employ panel data regressions to a longitudinal dataset of US industrial firms and find a positive relation between TMT digital knowledge and digital innovation, on average. We additionally find evidence for the integrative roles of CEOs and CDOs. However, our findings also indicate that the CDO's integrating role can be hampered by a strong hierarchical structure in the TMT.