The Performance Implications of the Evolution of Managerial Capabilities in the Context of Industry Evolution - Executive Summary

This dissertation integrates research in the areas of entrepreneurship, top management teams (TMT), firm evolution, and industry evolution to address the following question: how does the evolution of TMT capabilities affect firm performance? Specifically, I propose to examine the conditions under which these capabilities result not in competitive competencies, but in core rigidities, as the industry evolves. Departing from existing studies, this dissertation focuses on the impact that the group of key people organizing resources within the firm has on its evolution and performance. Post-entry learning and re-configuration of the team helps capitalize on initial experience of the top managers and entrepreneurs, and also fills in identified gaps that are caused due to technological transformation and industry evolution. The proposed hypotheses are empirically tested on firms who entered the cellular phone service industry from 1983 to 1998