Unleashing creative potential: The role of stable institutional ownership in exploratory innovation

Xin Deng, Hesham Ali and Heba Aboelkheir

Research Policy, 2025, vol. 54, issue 3

Abstract: This study investigates the impact of institutional ownership (IO) stability on firms’ pursuit of exploratory innovation. Utilizing a comprehensive dataset of public U.S. firms from 1990 to 2018, we provide robust evidence that firms with stable IO are more inclined to engage in exploratory innovation. Our analysis identifies three key mechanisms through which IO stability facilitates exploratory innovation: disciplinary, informational, and resource-provision channels. Considering the heterogeneous nature of institutional investors, our extended analysis indicates that the positive effect of stable IO on exploratory innovation is driven by active institutional investors, while the stability of both institutional blockholders and non-blockholders contributes to increased exploratory innovation. Furthermore, we find that the nexus between IO stability and exploratory innovation is more pronounced in firms with concentrated IO. Finally, we find that IO stability also leads to a high level of breakthrough innovation. Overall, our study highlights the critical role that stable IO plays in facilitating firms to overcome learning traps and fostering an environment conducive to exploratory activities within organizations.

Keywords: Institutional investors; Institutional ownership stability; Exploratory innovation; Agency theory; Resource-based view (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G23 O16 O31 O32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733324002154
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:respol:v:54:y:2025:i:3:s0048733324002154

DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2024.105166

Access Statistics for this article

Research Policy is currently edited by M. Bell, B. Martin, W.E. Steinmueller, A. Arora, M. Callon, M. Kenney, S. Kuhlmann, Keun Lee and F. Murray

More articles in Research Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu (repec@elsevier.com).