Research On The Relationship Between The Transfer Of Senior Managers, The Relationship Between The Cognitive Structure Of Top Management Team And The Strategic Change Of Enterprises

Strategic change is one of the most important problems in enterprise’s strategicmanagement. It emphasizes on the adaptability of the external environment and theenterprise’s expectation of positioning and indicating the direction for the future. Topmanagement team can assist to make the scientific and effective decision, so it isclosely between the enterprise reform and the cognitive structure of top managementteam. The higher degree of heterogeneity of the knowledge structure and the higherdegree of complexity of the cognitive model, the more attentions top managementteam pays to reform and innovation. The paper starts from the events of executivemigration, then focus on how to increase the heterogeneity and complexity of topmanagement team. Finally the paper discusses how to implement the corporate-leveland business-level strategic change successfully in a positive way.In recent years, Chinese computer, communication and other electronicequipment manufacturing industry is facing a tide of reforming. New technologyleads the change and the change spawns a new industry chain or new businessopportunities in return. Facing with the new industry chain and new business chances,the mobility of executive continue to strengthen. The paper talks about these hotspotsto study strategic change from the perspective of executive migration. Firstly thepaper reviews the existing literature. Strategic change can be divided into two levels,namely corporate-level strategic change and business-level strategic change. Theevent of executive migration can effect the cognitive structure and enterprise’sstrategic change. Secondly the paper makes use of the multi-case study method andselects three representative enterprises, namely Hisense Kelon, Sichuan Changhongand Konka A. Thirdly the paper gathers directors’ report of three enterprises,interviews of executive. Expert group summarizes the text data and builds up thedatabases. Lastly the paper measures the dimension of executive migration andcongnitive structure of top management team. The different dimensions are relevant tostrategic change.The main analysis results can be described as follows: 1. Different sources and characteristics of immigrant executive lead to differentlevel strategic change. Immigating “airborne” and internal competitors tend to usecorporate-level strategic change. On the contrary, immigating internal follower tendsto use business-level strategic change; the one who has full autonomy tends to thecorporate-level strategic change.2. Different sources and characteristics of immigrant executive lead to improvethe different degree of cognitive structure. Immigating “airborne” will highly improvethe cognitive structure of top management team. Immigating internal competitors canimprove the cognitive structure of top management team. Immigating internalfollower will not change the cognitive structure of top management team. Theinfluence weakens in turn. If the one has full autonomy, the cognitive structure of topmanagement team will be highly improved.3. The improvement of top management team’s cognitive structure will causecorporate-level strategic change. The higher degree of heterogeneity of the knowledgestructure, the more likely enterprise chooses corporate-level strategic change.Heterogeneity of the knowledge structure includes two parts, namely heterogeneity ofthe level of education and heterogeneity of professional career background. The moreattention top management team pay to the direction of macro-environment and theenterprise’s overall operations, the more likely enterprise chooses corporate-levelstrategic change. On the contrary, the more attention top management team pay to thedirection of product operation and market operation, the more likely enterprisechooses business-level strategic change.4. The cognitive structure of top management team plays an intermediary role inthe cognitive structure.