Topic: Are "Tech-obsessed" Executives More Likely to Innovate?——The Impact of Executives' Technology Hobby on Corporate Technology Innovation
Guest Speaker: Huang Songqin, Ph.D. in Economics; Assistant Researcher and Postdoctoral Fellow of the School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University
Abstract: Hobby is a way to show the ability of certain aspects of a behavior subject, in which the "technology hobby" of executives has become a characteristic of the development of private enterprises in China. Based on the top echelon theory and using data from the 2016 China Private Enterprise Survey (CPES), this paper empirically analyzes the impact and mechanism of executives' technology hobbies on corporate technology innovation. The study finds that executives' technology hobbies have a significant "facilitation effect" on corporate technology innovation, suggesting that "technology-obsessed" executives are more likely to engage in technological innovation. After using a series of robustness tests, the conclusions of this paper remain valid. In addition, the research of the mechanism of action finds that technology hobbies promote technological innovation in firms by increasing managers' confidence, strengthening their technology risk preferences, and stimulating their enthusiasm for following cutting-edge technologies. Further analysis also finds that the better the regional IP protection environment and enterprise resource endowment status, the stronger the promotion effect of executives' technology hobbies on enterprise technology innovation. Finally, the paper also finds that managers with a "technology hobby" are more likely to emphasize the importance of "technological innovation" in corporate management and pay more attention to the improvement of technological innovation capabilities. These managers are more likely to use "innovation" as one of the evaluation criteria for entrepreneurship. This research finding bridges the research gap in related fields, enriches the study of executive personal traits and corporate innovation development, and has important implications for how companies can better achieve innovation development by optimizing their management structure.
Keywords: Technology hobby; technological innovation; intellectual property protection; resource endowment
Time: 2-5 p.m. Oct 26, 2020
Organizers: School of Public Finance and Taxation, and the Institute of Income Distribution and Public Finance