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Shedding light on the CMO revolving door: a study of the antecedents of Chief Marketing Officer turnover

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  • Pravin Nath

    (The University of Oklahoma)

  • Vijay Mahajan

    (University of Texas at Austin)

Abstract

Investigating Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) tenure through a longitudinal study of the antecedents of CMO turnover, the authors find that CMO turnover increases if firms’ sales growth is poor, while profitability has a similar though smaller effect when a new CEO is appointed, highlighting marketing’s contextual role vis-à-vis performance metrics. Coupled with other results related to industry sales growth and stability that make CMO turnover less likely, these findings underscore marketing’s demand- or customer-facing role in the firm. The authors also show that some of these results are distinct to turnover among CMOs compared to other top management team (TMT) executives. While this research does show support for extant theory, its focus on the CMO within the TMT results in important contributions to the turnover literature. These include the inverted-U effect of TMT marketing experience on CMO turnover and the nuanced attenuation by CMO insider-ness of a similar relationship between CMO tenure and turnover. Overall, the results lead to important practical implications for managing CMO turnover.

Suggested Citation

  • Pravin Nath & Vijay Mahajan, 2017. "Shedding light on the CMO revolving door: a study of the antecedents of Chief Marketing Officer turnover," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 93-118, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:joamsc:v:45:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1007_s11747-016-0478-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s11747-016-0478-5
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    Cited by:

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    3. Kimberly A. Whitler & Ben Lee & Sarah Young, 2022. "The impact of boards of directors on chief marketing officer performance: Framing and research agenda," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 12(1), pages 116-136, June.
    4. Kimberly A. Whitler & Ben Lee & Ryan Krause & Neil A. Morgan, 2021. "Upper echelons research in marketing," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 198-219, January.
    5. Wenbin Sun & Rahul Govind, 2022. "A New Understanding of Marketing and “Doing Good”: Marketing’s Power in the TMT and Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 176(1), pages 89-109, February.
    6. Bendig, David, 2022. "Chief operating officer characteristics and how they relate to exploration via patenting versus venturing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 297-309.
    7. Nina Engels & Denise Fischer-Kreer & Malte Brettel, 2022. "CHRO firm dinosaur versus CHRO role gorilla: the effect of CHRO company and role tenure on firms’ social performance," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 92(6), pages 929-954, August.
    8. Vaid, Shashank & Ahearne, Michael & Honig, Benson & Krause, Ryan, 2023. "Customer-related executive leadership turnover and firm performance: A dilemma of firm-level human resource contingencies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    9. Cecilia Wiedeck & Andreas Engelen, 2018. "The copycat CMO: firms’ imitative behavior as an explanation for CMO presence," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 632-651, July.
    10. Feng, Cong & Fay, Scott, 2021. "Chief stores officer and retailer performance," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    11. Sharma, Amalesh & Yashaswy Akella, Laxminarayana & Bikash Borah, Sourav, 2022. "Knowledge structure of Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs): A review, bibliometric analysis, and research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 448-462.
    12. Saim Kashmiri & Cameron Duncan Nicol & Sandeep Arora, 2017. "Me, myself, and I: influence of CEO narcissism on firms’ innovation strategy and the likelihood of product-harm crises," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 45(5), pages 633-656, September.
    13. Jacob Brower & Pravin Nath, 2018. "Antecedents of market orientation: marketing CEOs, CMOs, and top management team marketing experience," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 29(4), pages 405-419, December.
    14. Leigh McAlister & Frank Germann & Natalie Chisam & Pete Hayes & Adriana Lynch & Bill Stewart, 2023. "A taxonomy of marketing organizations," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 617-635, May.
    15. Pravin Nath & Neeraj Bharadwaj, 2020. "Chief marketing officer presence and firm performance: assessing conditions under which the presence of other C-level functional executives matters," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(4), pages 670-694, July.
    16. Pramod Iyer & Arezoo Davari & Audhesh Paswan, 2018. "Determinants of brand performance: the role of internal branding," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 25(3), pages 202-216, May.

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