A comparative study of CEO and top management team decision-making processes on expansion of United States corporations into international markets

The objective of this dissertation was to study international market expansion decisions as a key strategic move by major U.S. corporations. This study examined the way CEOs and top management teams were involved in international market expansion decision-making processes.; The investigator compared two groups of U.S. executives who have been involved in international expansion decisions. The first was a group of top CEOs, who, by themselves, made certain decisions about international expansion in the past 5 years. The second was a group of CEOs and associated top management team members who made comparable decisions in the same period. The aim was to compare the relative success of the groups, review their decision-making processes, and to explore potentially important factors in the composition of the teams. Success was measured in terms of revenue growth, achieved by the corporations and that of the opinions of the CEO and top management team members.; The general methodology of the dissertation was causal comparison, based on the data collected in a survey conducted about past decisions made by CEOs and top management team members.; Data were gathered by a survey questionnaire addressed to 600 high-level managers from 300 high-technology U.S. firms, then analyzed according to a standard statistical procedure. From the 600 surveys that were mailed out, 374 responses were analyzed by chi-square.; Results indicated that there was no significant difference between the success of international market-entry decisions made by chief executive officers alone and those made by a top management team, in relation to successful implementation of market expansion and the development of the highly technical products offered in international markets. Results also indicated no significant difference between the success rate of younger top management team decisions concerning international market expansion decisions and that of older management teams. Finally, results showed no significant difference between the success rates of decisions made by management teams of differing gender composition.