Managerial succession and organizational performance—evidence from the German Soccer League

It has been widely studied how organizational performance changes after the replacement of managers. However, there is little evidence whether environmental changes moderate the efficiency of management replacements. In this paper, I explicitly consider the effect of a change in the environment of organizations on post‐replacement effects. Analyzing the performance effect of coach replacements in the German Soccer League before and after the introduction of the 3‐points‐rule theoretically and empirically I find that the magnitude of the performance effect of coach replacements differs under alternative regimes. The empirical analysis confirms predictions from my theoretical model and identifies moderating effects. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.