TMT organizational configurations and opportunity realization in established firms: An exploratory analysis

This paper studies the relationship between the opportunity realization of established firms and the organization of their top management teams (TMTs). We first consider six key organizational elements of TMTs and show how they combine in TMT organizational configurations. Then, we analyse how these configurations relate to the opportunity realization, also distinguishing between innovation and organizational change opportunities. Using a sample of 237 Italian firms collected through a survey of CEOs, we identify three well defined TMT organizational configurations: CEO-centric TMT, integrated TMT, and incentive-based TMT. The results from econometric models show that firms with an integrated TMT or an incentive-based TMT are generally better able to realize opportunities. Both the integrated TMT and the incentive-based TMT seem to have a positive impact on the realization of innovation opportunities, whereas the CEO-centric TMT positively relates only to organizational change opportunities. Our results contribute to the body of knowledge on how organizational design influences entrepreneurial behaviours/outcomes of established firms.