Inter-Unit Executive Redeployment in Multiunit Firms: Evidence from Korean Business Groups

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Chang, Sea-Jin; Kim, Young-Choon; Park, Sangchan
• 署名单位: National University of Singapore; Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST); Ulsan National Institute of Science & Technology (UNIST)
• 刊物名称: ORGANIZATION SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7039
• DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2020.14525
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 815-834
• 关键词: resource-based theory of the firm; resource redeployment; executives; human capital; employee mobility; multiunit firms

摘要

Building on the literature on resource reconfiguration theory, we formulate a new theoretical framework that explains how executive redeployment within a diversified firm transfers different types of human capital embodied in executives to different units facing specific business challenges. In the empirical context of Korean business groups, we find that executives with unit-specific human capital, like turnaround experience, competitive experience, and international expansion experience, are redeployed to units with corresponding business challenges like financial difficulties, intensifying competition, and early-stage international expansion, respectively. We also show that executives with unit-generic human capital, like corporate management practices and interunit coordination experiences, are redeployed to younger units seeking to establish corporate-level policies and practices. Additional analyses also show that the value of firm-specific human capital in driving the redeployment of executives is contingent on their functional orientation and seniority.