CEOs’ temporal focus, firm strategic change, and performance: Insights from a paradox perspective

Pascal Back, Kathrin Rosing, Teresa Antonia Dickler, Priscilla Sarai Kraft and Andreas Bausch

European Management Journal, 2020, vol. 38, issue 6, 884-899

Abstract: Recent research indicates that CEOs’ temporal focus (the degree to which individuals attend to the past, present, and future) is a critical predictor for strategic outcomes. Building on paradox theory and the attention-based view, we examine the implications of CEOs’ past and future focus for strategic change. Results from polynomial regression analysis reveal that CEOs who cognitively embrace both the past and the future at the same time engage more in strategic change. In addition, our results reveal that the positive strategic change−firm performance relationship is enhanced when CEOs’ past focus is high, whereas CEOs’ future focus mitigates the translation of strategic change into firm performance (when their past focus is low at the same time). In addition, supplemental analyses indicate that the impact of CEOs’ temporal focus turns out differently in stable and dynamic environments. Our study thus extends the literature on both individual’s temporal focus and strategic change.

Keywords: CEOs’ temporal focus; Strategic change; Paradoxes; Polynomial regression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eurman:v:38:y:2020:i:6:p:884-899

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DOI: 10.1016/j.emj.2020.04.009

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