Contextualising upper echelon research: The interactions of top management teams and CEOs

Top managers are considered the most influential decision-makers for firms’ strategy and a large body of research presents evidence for executive effects in different settings. Yet only recently have researchers started to pay attention to the role of the social and environmental contexts in which top management teams (TMTs) are embedded. Top executives are often informed, influenced, and sometimes constrained by others inside and outside the organization. As a result, upper echelons face diverse challenges and opportunities when operating in a variety of different contexts. Contextual factors at the team, organizational, industry and country level are considered not only important determinants of executive composition but also moderating forces shaping the consequences of executive characteristics for firm strategy and performance. This special issue focuses on one particular layer of context, the team context, and aims to advance our theoretical and empirical understanding of the interplay between the top management teams and the CEO