International Experience in Upper Echelon Theory: Literature Review

Abstract

Background: The international experience of top managers is an evolving research within the upper echelon theory; therefore this literature review summarizes everything made so far. Objectives: The purpose of this paper is to provide a literature review of international experience within the theory of the upper echelons. Methods/Approach: We reviewed the literature from the beginning of the theory formation and tried to understand the direction in which it develops, particularly in the context of international experience. We conducted a bibliometric analysis in order to understand the research area better. Results: We have found that 38 papers were published in 25 different journals by 72 authors. We have concluded that the area of research is very narrow and that most of the research is concentrated on finding out the impact of demographic characteristics and international experience of top managers on internationalization strategy mostly with MNC-s. Conclusions: After two decades of international experience in the upper echelon theory there is a significant possibility of uniformity of the theory but only if researchers are able to prove equal results among different countries.

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