 Shifting gears: Role of CEO turnover on shifts between exploration and exploitationYoonhee Choi and Mary Benner Journal of Business Research, 2025, vol. 191, issue C Abstract: Temporal ambidexterity (i.e., oscillating between exploration and exploitation over time) has been linked to profitability and growth of firms. However, the underlying mechanisms driving these shifts between exploration and exploitation remain poorly understood. This paper aims to investigate how CEO turnover and pre-turnover firm performance provide an opportunity for firms to shift between exploration and exploitation. Using panel data from 333 U.S. firms, the paper utilizes fixed-effects linear regressions and supplementary tests while addressing endogeneity concern in the empirical models. Our results show that firms have a higher magnitude of shifting between exploration and exploitation subsequent to a CEO’s turnover, and the degree and likelihood of the shift are stronger when CEO turnover happened at the time of weak firm performance. The paper highlights that CEO turnover does not unidirectionally shift the firm’s focus from exploitation to exploration but can result in shifts in either direction. Keywords: Temporal ambidexterity; CEO turnover; Exploration and exploitation (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:191:y:2025:i:c:s0148296325000773 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115254 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier |
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