IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jmathe/v9y2021i18p2271-d636335.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Evolutionary Justification of the Emergence of Leadership Using Mathematical Models

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Solow

    (Department of Operations, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA)

  • Joseph Szmerekovsky

    (Department of Management, Marketing and Finance, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58108, USA)

  • Sukumarakurup Krishnakumar

    (Henry E. Riggs School of Applied Life Sciences, Keck Graduate Institute, Claremont, CA 91711, USA)

Abstract

The value and importance of leadership is evident by its prevalence throughout human societies and organizations. Based on an evolutionary argument, models are presented here that provide a mathematical justification as to how and why leadership arose in the first place and then persisted. In this setting, by a leader is meant a person whose overall actions are ultimately responsible for the well-being and survival of the group. The proposed models contain parameters whose values reflect group size, harshness of the environment, diversity of actions taken by individuals, and the amount of group cohesion. Mathematical analysis and computer simulations are used to identify conditions on these parameters under which leadership results in an increased survival probability for the community.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Solow & Joseph Szmerekovsky & Sukumarakurup Krishnakumar, 2021. "An Evolutionary Justification of the Emergence of Leadership Using Mathematical Models," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(18), pages 1-23, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:9:y:2021:i:18:p:2271-:d:636335
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/9/18/2271/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/9/18/2271/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alan I. Murray, 1989. "Top management group heterogeneity and firm performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(S1), pages 125-141, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. van Olffen, W. & Boone, C.A.J.J., 1997. "The confusing state of the art in top management composition studies: A theoretical and empirical review," Research Memorandum 011, Maastricht University, Netherlands Institute of Business Organization and Strategy Research (NIBOR).
    2. Zhe Li & Oksana Pryshchepa & Bo Wang, 2023. "Financial experts on the top management team: Do they reduce investment inefficiency?," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1-2), pages 198-235, January.
    3. Daniel Tzabbar & Alex Vestal, 2015. "Bridging the Social Chasm in Geographically Distributed R&D Teams: The Moderating Effects of Relational Strength and Status Asymmetry on the Novelty of Team Innovation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(3), pages 811-829, June.
    4. Mehmet Ali Köseoglu & John A. Parnell & Melissa Yan Yee Yick, 2021. "Identifying influential studies and maturity level in intellectual structure of fields: evidence from strategic management," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(2), pages 1271-1309, February.
    5. Ahmed Ayman & Moataz El-Helaly & Nermeen Shehata, 2019. "Board diversity and earnings news dissemination on Twitter in the UK," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 23(3), pages 715-734, September.
    6. Adams, Renée B. & Akyol, Ali C. & Verwijmeren, Patrick, 2018. "Director skill sets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(3), pages 641-662.
    7. Höhler Julia, 2017. "Heterogenität von Mitgliederstrukturen als Herausforderung für Genossenschaften im Agribusiness," Zeitschrift für das gesamte Genossenschaftswesen, De Gruyter, vol. 67(1), pages 21-35, March.
    8. Dong Kyoon Yoo, 2017. "Impacts of a Knowledge Sharing Climate and Interdisciplinary Knowledge Integration on Innovation," Journal of Information & Knowledge Management (JIKM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 16(02), pages 1-23, June.
    9. Grey, Colette & Flynn, Antoinette & Adu, Douglas A., 2024. "An examination of how executive remuneration and firm performance are influenced by Chair-CEO diversity attributes," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    10. Talavera, Oleksandr & Yin, Shuxing & Zhang, Mao, 2016. "Managing the diversity: board age diversity, directors’ personal values, and bank performance," MPRA Paper 71927, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Sonja Sperber & Christian Linder, 2018. "The impact of top management teams on firm innovativeness: a configurational analysis of demographic characteristics, leadership style and team power distribution," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 285-316, January.
    12. Boone, Christophe & van Olffen, Woody & van Witteloostuijn, Arjen, 1998. "Psychological team make-up as a determinant of economic firm performance: An experimental study," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 43-73, February.
    13. Pham, Thuy-Dzung T. & Lo, Fang-Yi, 2023. "How does top management team diversity influence firm performance? A causal complexity analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 186(PB).
    14. Krishnan, Hema A. & Park, Daewoo, 2005. "A few good women--on top management teams," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(12), pages 1712-1720, December.
    15. Ramos-Garza, Claudia, 2009. "TMT strategic consensus in Mexican companies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(9), pages 854-860, September.
    16. Collins Ntim & Teerooven Soobaroyen, 2013. "Black Economic Empowerment Disclosures by South African Listed Corporations: The Influence of Ownership and Board Characteristics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 116(1), pages 121-138, August.
    17. Farman Ali & Muhammad Ullah & Syed Tauseef Ali & Zhen Yang & Imran Ali, 2022. "Board Diversity and Corporate Investment Decisions: Evidence from China," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, June.
    18. Theresa S. Cho & Donald C. Hambrick, 2006. "Attention as the Mediator Between Top Management Team Characteristics and Strategic Change: The Case of Airline Deregulation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 17(4), pages 453-469, August.
    19. Rivas, Jose Luis, 2012. "Diversity & internationalization: The case of boards and TMT's," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 1-12.
    20. Michael Dahl & Toke Reichstein, 2007. "Are You Experienced? Prior Experience and the Survival of New Organizations," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(5), pages 497-511.

    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:gam:jmathe:v:9:y:2021:i:18:p:2271-:d:636335. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.