IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/mrrpps/v39y2016i7p803-829.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Motivated to change? TMT regulatory focus and strategic change

Author

Listed:
  • Philip T. Roundy
  • Ye Dai
  • Mark A. Bayer
  • Gukdo Byun

Abstract

Purpose - This paper aims to introduce the concept of top management team (TMT) regulatory focus to explain the differences in executive motivation. Upper echelons research has demonstrated that top managers’ willingness to deviate from their current strategies is a key determinant of organizational success. However, it is not clear why some TMTs are motivated to embrace strategic change while others are motivated to favor the strategic status quo. Design/methodology/approach - Recent work in the psychology of motivation is used to develop a conceptual model explaining how the regulatory focus of TMTs can impact their outlooks toward strategic change. Findings - It is theorized that there is a positive (negative) relationship between promotion (prevention)-focused TMTs and strategic change. It is also theorized that executives’ performance aspirations, firm maturity and the stability of the environment will influence the relationship between regulatory focus and strategic change. Originality/value - Although the theoretical explanations provided by past research on top manager motivation are psychological in their general focus, with few exceptions research has not sought to understand the specific deep-level, socio-cognitive characteristics that shape executives’ perceptions of strategic change. By developing an understanding of the psychological determinants of strategic change, as well as the interplay between these determinants and firm- and environment-level factors, this paper represents a step in the direction of explaining why some TMTs are motivated to embrace strategic change while others seem “locked-in” to the status quo.

Suggested Citation

  • Philip T. Roundy & Ye Dai & Mark A. Bayer & Gukdo Byun, 2016. "Motivated to change? TMT regulatory focus and strategic change," Management Research Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 39(7), pages 803-829, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:eme:mrrpps:v:39:y:2016:i:7:p:803-829
    DOI: 10.1108/MRR-10-2014-0235
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/MRR-10-2014-0235/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/MRR-10-2014-0235/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/MRR-10-2014-0235?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nuru M. Ahmed & Jianfeng Wu, 2021. "Diversifying or Focused Acquisition? The Influence of CEOs Temporal Focus on Corporate Acquisition Target Choice and the Moderating Role of Corporate Governance," International Journal of Science and Business, IJSAB International, vol. 5(4), pages 80-104.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eme:mrrpps:v:39:y:2016:i:7:p:803-829. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.