INNOVATION EFFORT AND CEO’S CHARACTERISTICS

Nadia Loukil, Ouidad Yousfi () and Sana Ben Cheikh
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Nadia Loukil: ISG Bizerte, Université de Carthage & FCF UR, FSEG Tunis, Université Tunis-ELManar, Tunisie
Sana Ben Cheikh: ESSEC Tunis, Université de Tunis & FCF UR, FSEG Tunis, Université Tunis-ELManar, Tunisie

International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), 2020, vol. 24, issue 05, 1-31

Abstract: The current study analyses how CEO’s attributes could influence innovation. It is drawn on all listed firms on the SBF1201 index between 2001 and 2013. Proxies for innovation effort are the ratio of R&D spending and the number of researchers/scientists per R&D team. First, we find that the CEO’s education background could influence innovation effort. Specifically, when CEOs have a science or an engineering degree, unlike business and management educated CEOs, they are more inclined to increase R&D spending. These effects are pronounced in innovative firms operating in sectors where innovation is not the heart core of their businesses. Also, we show that CEOs’ profile influence firms’ innovation investment only in non-technological industries. In high technological firms, attributes’ differences between CEOs are very small which may be due to high competition between firms listed on the SBF120 index. Finally, our results on the influence of gender diversity on boardrooms in Tech firms are consistent with the risk-avoidance hypothesis according to which women are risk averse agents.

Keywords: CEO attributes; powerful CEO; innovation effort; tech firms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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DOI: 10.1142/S1363919620500796

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