This study explored the role of strategic leadership in declining firms by empirically examining CEOs’ founder status and extensiveness of external board of director appointments as predictors of the likelihood of successful turnaround. The authors used the resource dependence and board interlock literatures to develop their hypotheses. Their analysis of data collected from a matched pair of 82 turnaround and bankrupt U.S. firms indicate that the extensiveness of CEOs’ external board appointments significantly increase the likelihood of turnaround. Contrary to the authors’ prediction, there was no significant relationship between founder status and likelihood of turnaround. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
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