Chief Executive Officer curiosity and strategic change: The differential role of curiosity types and top management team characteristics
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Despite ample evidence that curiosity plays a significant role in information-seeking, we know little about the influence of Chief Executive Officer curiosity on strategic decisions. Building on established psychology research, we distinguish between two central curiosity types: interest-type curiosity —the joyful pursuit of novel information, and deprivation-type curiosity —the urge to address and close information gaps. We hypothesize that Chief Executive Officer I-type curiosity is positively associated with strategic change, while Chief Executive Officer D-type curiosity is negatively related to it. Since Chief Executive Officer curiosity entails a social aspect, it influences how a Chief Executive Officer acquires information from top management team members. We therefore examine the moderating role of top management team size and change. Applying a novel text measure for Chief Executive Officer curiosity types to S&P 500 firms, we find that the Chief Executive Officer D-type curiosity relates negatively to strategic change, while Chief Executive Officer I-type curiosity does not relate to it significantly. Larger top management teams seem to alleviate Chief Executive Officer D-type curiosity’s negative effect, while top management team changes appear to strengthen Chief Executive Officer I-type curiosity’s positive impact. This study contributes to upper echelons research by providing first insights into Chief Executive Officer curiosity’s multifaceted dimensions and their differential effect on change.
Source: Strategic Organization
Authors: Dieter Gutschi, Patricia Klarner
Institution: Vienna University of Economics and Business
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,900
OpenAlex ID: W4408383862