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The widespread performance declines and corporate failures amidst economic crises in recent times heightened the need for heated academic discussions on the essence of top management teams’ characteristics in respect of turnaround management. It is undisputable that the recent COVID-19 crisis has adversely impacted the performance of many firms worldwide (Rico, Pandit, & Puig, 2021; Singh & Jain, 2022; Tao, Xu, & Liu, 2020). As such, this problematic situation refreshed the interest of researchers and academicians as well as policymakers in corporate turnaround. Although there is an ongoing debate on the linkage between top management team characteristics and strategic choices, it is well-known in the management discourse that the characteristics of the senior executives can be a reflection of the performance of the company (Abatecola & Cristofaro, 2020; Hambrick, 2007; Hambrick & Mason, 1984). As such, it appears to be logical to observe that the senior managers can determine the failure or success of a company. Surprisingly, much less is known about the top management teams’ characteristics that are of relevance in a turnaround situation.
Globally, it has been observed that the upper echelons theory that was propounded by Hambrick & Mason (1984) suggests that the background characteristics like education and experience have a bearing on the strategic choices to be made which can go a long way to influence the bottom line, that is, the performance of the company. Admittedly, the ability of the senior executives to monitor, analyze and interpret the external business environment appears to be influenced by background characteristics. With this in mind, various scientific studies were conducted on the effect of top management characteristics on firm performance in the context of developed countries, particularly in the socio-economic settings of the United States (US) (Cheng, Chan, & Leung, 2010; Choi, Kwak, & Choe, 2014; Ye, Zhang, & Rezaee, 2010). Nonetheless, the previous research works with respect to top management teams’ characteristics were not done within the unique context of turnaround management.
In light of the above, and the understanding of the upper echelons theory tenets, companies have started to appreciate characteristics such as education and experience. More interesting, academicians managed to carry out several studies pertaining to the interaction between top management characteristics and firm performance (Cheng et al., 2010; Choi et al., 2014; Ye et al., 2010). However, there is no consensus among scholars which opens gaps for further research and contribution. Taking a management perspective, the background characteristics play a critical role in influencing the strategic decision-making process (Abetecola & Cristofaro, 2020).
Although the current study is based on Zimbabwe one of the developing countries in the African continent, it is worth noting that Zimbabwe is not an exception with regard to challenges of high corporate failures, liquidations and organizational declines especially in the context of the manufacturing sector (Kandwe, Rituri, & Madzikanda, 2016; Murairwa, 2016; Ngenya, Sibanda, & Zana, 2016. Within the context of Zimbabwe, it is an open secret that many manufacturing firms experienced life-threatening challenges emanating from dramatic performance decline. To make matters worse, big manufacturing firms experienced financial distress and then some went further into winding up (Mlambo, 2017). This problematic situation demands one to scrutinize the top management characteristics in the context of turnaround management. It is noteworthy that various mechanisms were put in place in trying to resuscitate the performance of financially-distressed firms such as judicial management. Although the aspect of judicial management was recently replaced by corporate rescue, there is still an upsurge in corporate failures.