Chief marketing officers’ discretion and firms’ internationalization: An empirical investigation

V. Kumar (), Sourav Bikash Borah (), Amalesh Sharma () and Laxminarayana Yashaswy Akella ()
Additional contact information
V. Kumar: Indian School of Business
Sourav Bikash Borah: Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad
Amalesh Sharma: Mays Business School, Texas A&M University
Laxminarayana Yashaswy Akella: Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

Journal of International Business Studies, 2021, vol. 52, issue 3, No 2, 363-387

Abstract: Abstract The role of key individuals, such as the chief marketing officer (CMO), in the internationalization process has largely been ignored in the international business literature. Given the importance of the CMO in internationalization and to address this gap in the literature, this study focuses on the role of the CMO – a key individual in organizations who, with adequate levels of discretion, can act as a conduit of knowledge in international markets, facilitating the internationalization of the firm. Drawing on the literature on managerial discretion, internalization theory, and its microfoundations, we argue that the CMO's strategic, operational, and financial discretion, respectively, have positive yet diminishing effects on internationalization. Further, the international experience of the top management team (TMT) and the CMO’s equity compensation moderate these relationships. We contribute to internalization theory and the growing body of literature on the role of the TMT and CMO.

Keywords: chief marketing officer; internalization theory; microfoundation; internationalization; discretion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41267-020-00378-y Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:jintbs:v:52:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1057_s41267-020-00378-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... nt/journal/41267/PS2

DOI: 10.1057/s41267-020-00378-y

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of International Business Studies is currently edited by John Cantwell

More articles in Journal of International Business Studies from Palgrave Macmillan, Academy of International Business
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().