Managerial careers and business strategies

This article examines the link between managers' careers and the strategic behavior of the companies they manage. We argue that despite the theoretical and practical importance of this topic for the strategic management of organizations, the results of research to date have been contradictory and conf using, partly because of two substantial gaps in the underpinning theory. Implicit theories about the impact of work history on managerial characteristics ore not made explicit. and a conceptual bridge is needed between individual and organizational levels of analysis. Ideas from research on decision-making studies, top management team behavior, and the strategic management literature are reviewed to yield an integrative model that specifies a set of propositions defining a program of research designed to shed light on the nature of the link.