Upper echelons and firm internationalization: A critical review and future directions

Abstract

International business literature has long acknowledged the powerful influence of the upper echelons of firms, leading to an impressive volume of research delving into the impacts of managers’ demographic, psychographic, and experiential backgrounds on firms’ actions and strategies. We draw on this stream of literature to analyze and synthesize empirical findings related to the influence of upper echelons on firm internationalization. The review is organized along two dimensions:ex antedecisions andex postoutcomes of firms’ internationalization trajectories, and then the influence of managers’ demographic and psychological attributes. As it shows, we lack research on the influences of (1) executive attributes onex postoutcomes, (2) executives’ risk perceptions onex ante decisions, and (3) executive attributes on firm internationalization processes. Accordingly, we develop an integrative framework that maps and organizes various facets of this literature. We also propose four new themes to stimulate further research in this area.