The findings of the chief executive officer (CEO) characteristics-research and development (R&D) investment relationship remain incomplete if previous unexamined contingencies are not considered. Very few studies in this area have invariably focused on the constraints from the external environment and overlooked the important influence of board social capital on such relationship. This study uses insights from resource dependence theory to examine how the effects of CEO characteristics on R&D investment are contingent on board social capital. The results show that board social capital mitigates/enhances the negative/ positive effect of CEO tenure/CEO educational level on R&D investment, supporting the view that board social capital, as an important conduit to link firms to critical information and essential resources in the environment, may offer better counsel to CEOs and enhance their decision-making capabilities in moving toward R&D. One important implication is that firms wishing to encourage innovation through R&D spending should consider nominating directors with rich social capital to the board because they may assist CEOs in coping with R&D complexities and acquiring requisite resources, leading to a better planning of R&D.
This study compares the innovation system characteristics of 40 countries from the perspective of process efficiency. We treat the national innovation system as a two-stage process that first produces knowledge and then commercializes the knowledge produced. After identifying efficiencies through data envelopment analysis, the within-country strengths, or the contribution of the individual process factor to the efficiency, of all 40 target countries are compared by applying the network-based ranking method. The comparison is different from previous efficiency-based studies in that it hints at country characteristics and highlights the cross-country benchmarks for each process factor. The pattern of within-country strengths underlines the characteristic of each country. Based on country characteristics, we highlight the national differences and categorize the target countries into nine distinctive groups. We find that no single country demonstrates characteristics that focus on both the knowledge production and knowledge commercialization stages. The results provide policy makers with both references on what to improve and information for where to learn the experience from.
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