The study tests the contention that variations in the focal organization's context, reflecting strategies of coopting, competing, capitalizing, and corpulating, constrain the periodicity of succession in the office of chief executive within the setting of 58 petrochemical companies. Contextual variation is identified through a coefficient of volatility which accounts for economic trends in corporate growth (or decline) through least squares deviations. Results suggest that high presidential succession rates are influenced by both a low degree of variation over time in board membership and a high degree of variation in debt to equity structure. The relationship between board size variation and succession rate is somewhat unexpected, and it is even more predominant when surveyed companies are classified according to the degree of successfulness (profitability and return on investment). Further analysis reveals a prediction model for successor tenure based on volatility variables and moderator effects.
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