How does a CEO's origin affect their job mobility and post-succession organisational performance

This thesis presents my contribution to the three main topics of CEO succession research: the antecedents of succession, the selection of a new CEO, and the impact a new CEO has on post-succession organisational performance, all through the unique lens of social capital theory. Using the English NHS as a case study, I test the theories of succession from the private sector in a new context, that of large and complex public sector organisations. I find that internal social capital, as proxied by CEO insiderness and reputational social capital, as proxied by organisational performance, are important factors in determining both length of tenure and exit destination for those CEOs who leave their posts. I find that the selection of a new CEO has a non-linear relationship with performance such that trusts with both high and low baseline performance will appoint a CEO with higher insider social capital, but that this does not hold when reputational social capital is used. Finally, I find evidence to support both the disruptive and adaptive theories of CEO succession when the baseline performance of the trust is taken into account as a contingency factor.

My thesis makes several valuable contributions to the research area in terms of the scarcely used lens of social capital theory applied to CEO successions, extending the evidence base from the predominantly private sector research, methodological advancements for antecedents research by focusing on actual exits rather than intention to leave and the inclusion of exit destinations linked to social standing.