Top management team’s innovation-related characteristics and the firm’s explorative R&D: an analysis based on patent data

Chul Lee, Gunno Park, Klaus Marhold and Jina Kang ()
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Chul Lee: Seoul National University
Gunno Park: Samsung SDS
Klaus Marhold: Seoul National University
Jina Kang: Seoul National University

Scientometrics, 2017, vol. 111, issue 2, No 5, 639-663

Abstract: Abstract This study investigates the relationship between characteristics of the firm’s top management team (TMT) and its research and development (R&D) activities. Specifically, this research analyzes how observable characteristics of the TMT, such as functional experiences or educational background, and average tenure affect the firm’s proportion of explorative R&D activities. From the perspective of the upper-echelon theory, we hypothesize that the TMT’s functional experiences with R&D or science or engineering educational backgrounds increase the firm’s tendency towards explorative R&D. Moreover, we propose that the average tenure of TMT members with innovation-related experiences would have a positive moderation effects on these relationships. The hypotheses are tested using a dataset containing biographical information of the TMT members, financial, and patent data of 89 firms in U.S. high-tech industries from 2006 to 2009. Firm’s explorative R&D activities are analyzed using data on patent citations, patent classes, and non-patent references. The empirical analysis shows that the top managers’ educational background in science or engineering as well as their previous functional experiences with R&D have a positive effect on the firm’s explorative innovation activities. We also find that the size of these effects increases with a longer tenure of these TMT members. Our findings provide implications related to the effects of organizational characteristics on the establishment of a R&D strategy and highlight the role of TMT members with innovative experiences in directing a firm’s R&D activities and outcomes.

Keywords: R&D; Patent analysis; Innovation; Top management team; Exploration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M12 O31 O32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11192-017-2322-1

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