Coordinator:    

-   Dr.Kees van Veen (k.van.veen@rug.nl)

Permanent members: 

-   Dr. Florian Becker-Ritterspach - University of Groningen

-   Dr. Christoph Dörrenbächer    - University of Groningen

-   Drs. Wilfred Geerlings             -  Noordelijke Hogeschool Leeuwarden

-   Dr. Niels Hermes                     -  University of Groningen 

-   Dr. Jan Kratzer                        - Univeristy of Groningen
-   Dr. Peter Mühlau                     - Trinity College Dublin

Temporary members:

-   Ilse Marsman Msc

-   Janine Elbertsen Msc

-   Wesley Kaufman Msc

-   Daan van der Mee Msc

-   Floris De Haan

Introduction

In this project, we study the economic power elite (Wright Mills 1956) in Europe: managers in the boards of large European companies. We are interested in questions as:

• How different are boards in different European countries in terms of their managers? Do German boards consist of more different nationalities than Dutch ones? Are Swedish topmanagers older than their French counterparts?

• Is there a European labour market for top managers? Were Anders Mobergs’ moves from IKEA to Home Depot to AHOLD exceptional, or part of a trend? How likely is it that TNT’s Peter Bakker becomes CEO in Spain?

• Do managerial careers develop differently in different countries? What does a manager need to get to the top in France or the UK?

• Do differences in board composition affect organizational performance? Are older boards more experience and as a result, more succesful? Are larger boards more succesful? Is it helpful for a multinational to have more nationalities in the board ?

Our focus is empirical and quantitative. This means that we collect:

1. career data of large numbers of individual Board members in large numbers of companies in a large number of countries, and if possible over large periods of time.

2. data on company characteristics (size, profit, industry, etcetera), preferably over longer periods of time.

3. data on the countries where these companies are established (economic size, labor market systems, educcational systems, corporate governance systems, etcetera)

Such combined datasets create a possibilities to answer different questions which have a scientific as well as a societal relevance.

At the moment, we focus on three subquestions, although there is always room for more.

 

Sub question 1: What do European Top Management Teams look like?

Sub question 2: How do managers get into the Boards in European companies?

Sub question 3: Do differences in European Top Management Teams matter?