I have a study in mind which referred to thousands of companies/ CEOs and found that the employees are the most important factor for company success. Red about it once but can´t find it nowhere.
please excuse my late response. First of all, thanks a lot for your fast and specific answers. They all have been very helpful.
@Stephan Kaiser - I finally quoted this paper in my work, using · Hambrick, D. C./ Mason, P. A. (1984). Upper echelons: The organization as a reflection of its top managers. In: Academy of Management Review, 9 (1984), S. 193–206. But you are right, none of the links lead to a study with the "songle most important factor". Anyway, very helpful!
@Hadeel Saad Al-Hyari: Thanks for this one as well, I used Boudreaus results as well. Thanks a lot!
@Juha Kettunen: Obviously you are right, but I was searching for studies which proof essentilly the opposite. There exist theories which say that at the end every matter is a employee matter and can be solved by them which makes them the most valuable asset.