The Impact of TMT Experience Heterogeneity on Enterprise Innovation Quality: Empirical Analysis on Chinese Listed Companies

Abstract

High-quality innovation can solve the “bottleneck” problem of key enterprise technologies and drive the high-quality development of enterprises. Therefore, how to improve innovation quality has become a growing concern in the academic industry. In previous studies, the impact of TMT experience heterogeneity on enterprise innovation quality has not been well explored. Based on the panel data of Chinese A-share listed companies, this paper explored how TMT experience heterogeneity affects enterprise innovation quality. The following constitutes our findings: (1) TMT functional experience heterogeneity positively affects partner diversity to promote innovation quality, while industrial experience heterogeneity shows the opposite result. (2) Enterprise partner diversity partially mediates the relationship between TMT experience heterogeneity and innovation quality. (3) TMT technological participation positively regulates the relationship between TMT experience heterogeneity and enterprise partner diversity. This paper gave theoretical support for enterprises to play the role of TMT experience heterogeneity in enhancing innovation quality, and we extended the research on TMT heterogeneity based on empirical analysis. This study also provided new micro evidence for enterprises to use diverse partners to improve innovation quality.

Industry and Regional Peer Effects in Corporate Digital Transformation: The Moderating Effects of TMT Characteristics

“…Younger executives and older executives tend to differ in terms of management experience, risk preference, and information acquisition and processing [57][58][59]. As Hambrick and Mason (1984) have pointed out, age to some extent reflects an executive's experience and risk preference [39].…”

“…To a certain extent, the characteristics of TMTs reflect their perceptions and values. Different TMT characteristics lead to differences in motivations such as maintaining reputation [57,94,95], risk aversion [96][97][98], and catching up with and imitating peers [99][100][101]. The current research mainly focuses on the mechanism of peer effects in corporate decisionmaking, such as information transmission [24], product market competition [24,41], and economic policy uncertainty [102] while less attention is paid to TMT characteristics.…”

Impact of Digital Supply Chain on Sustainable Trade Credit Provision: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies

“…Drawing on the upper echelons theory, we investigated how TMT power moderated the relationship between DSC and sustainable TC provision, which contributed to the advancement of supply chain management theory and TC theory [39]. Some studies suggested that enterprises decision-making was a process of negotiation and compromise among TMT, shareholders and employees, and that the characteristics of TMT would have a significant influence on enterprises decisions [45]. The development and execution of DSC strategy is the outcome of effective interactions and collaboration among TMT members, while TC provision is a major financial decision for the enterprise.…”

“…Second, we broadened the application domain of the upper echelon theory [44]. The extant literature highlighted the role of TMT in supply chain management [45], but its overlooked the power of TMT. We elucidated the effect of TMT power on the relationship between DSC and TC provision and offered a foundation for future research.…”

Top Management Team Heterogeneity and the Performance of Cross-Border M&A

“…Some scholars believe that the heterogeneity of the TMT is conducive to bringing more information and diversified cognition to the enterprise, so as to improve business performance. Ma et al (2022) tested the impact of TMT experience heterogeneity on enterprise innovation quality, and found that TMT functional experience heterogeneity positively affects partner diversity to promote innovation quality. Tao (2018) took science and technology 1 Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan, China 2 Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Nanchang, China 3 Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand enterprises as the research object and found that the diversity of the TMT's characteristics were positively correlated with corporate performance, that is, increasing the proportion of female leaders could improve corporate performance.…”