Strategic ambidexterity has been under researched in the context of Chinese outward foreign direct investment (FDI). An ambidextrous FDI, balancing between exploratory and exploitive activities, is strategically desirable but managerially challenging. We examine the role of top management team (TMT) functional diversity in influencing Chinese firms’ degree of FDI ambidexterity, and its boundary conditions in relation to the informal and formal institutional environments within which the TMT operates. Based on a panel of Chinese outward-investing manufacturing firms, our empirical analyses show that a marginal positive effect of TMT functional diversity on a firm's FDI ambidexterity is strengthened by the social faultline presence in the firm's TMT, but is weakened by the development of formal institutions in the firm's external environment.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships among human resource development (HRD) efforts, top management support, and employees’ attitudes (job satisfaction and organizational commitment) in the Korean context. Based on the Korean Human Capital Corporate Panel survey data, 3,899 responses from 159 large companies were analyzed by adopting hierarchical multiple regression analysis and a regression-based path analysis. The results indicated that HRD efforts positively affected organizational commitment through job satisfaction. In addition, job satisfaction had a moderated mediation effect on the interaction of HRD efforts and top management support on organization commitment. Finally, top management support moderates the relationship between HRD efforts and employees’ attitudes such that increased top management support for HRD efforts improves employees’ job satisfaction and organizational commitment.

Forming strategic alliances with foreign organizations is critical for firms, as it can enable them to access external resources globally. However, because firms, especially those in emerging economies, may possess less legitimacy in foreign countries, potential foreign alliance partners may lack satisfactory organizational information to adequately evaluate them. By applying signaling theory, this study argues that alternative sources, such as the prestige characteristics of the top management team, play an important role in signaling the quality of firms. Additionally, this study expects that the effects of the prestige characteristics of top management teams on the formation of international strategic alliances are lessened when the number of prior international alliances increases. The empirical results support our arguments. Overall, this study contributes by bringing signaling theory into the research of the formation of international strategic alliances.

Supporting on recent theoretical approaches to the concept of familiness based on the notion of social capital, this study analyzes the composition of top management teams in non-listed family firms and its effect on the performance of these firms. An empirical analysis comprising 929 Spanish private family firms highlights the positive and significant influence of the inclusion of non-family managers, the family nature of top executives, as well as the presence of the founder. The study includes no significant results regarding homogeneity within family managers, or the interaction between a top family executive and the proportion of non-family managers.