The role of top management team international orientation in international strategic decision-making: The choice of foreign entry mode

By applying the upper echelons perspective to international strategic decision-making, we examine the impact of managerial characteristics on the choice of foreign entry mode. We distinguish between top management team (TMT) international experience and nationality diversity and propose the latter as a central yet understudied aspect of TMT composition that influences international decision-making with regard to choice of entry mode in a unique way. Our results show that while TMTs with international experience are more likely to choose full-control entry modes over shared-control entry modes, nationally diverse TMTs are more inclined to opt for shared-control over full-control entry modes when entering foreign markets. This highlights the need to treat TMT nationality diversity and international experience as two distinct characteristics influencing international strategic decision-making. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.