Paper ID

3184

Paper Type

short

Description

Innovation is at the heart of corporate entrepreneurship (CE) and central to sustaining competitive advantages (Porter 1990, Sharma and Chrisman 1999). However, volatility, unpredictability, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) of today’s business world and associated increasing efficiency pressures shift firms’ attention to both sides of the “innovation coin”, i.e., innovation output quantity and quality. Yet, longitudinal research scrutinizing the impact of CEOs’ personality and motivational sets and their interplay with the TMT on innovation output quantity and quality simultaneously remains surprisingly scarce. Addressing a research gap concerning CEO-level, psychological as well as TMT-related drivers of innovation performance, our panel data study draws on upper echelons (Hambrick and Mason 1984) and regulatory focus theory (Higgins 1997) to answer two major research questions: How does CEO regulatory focus affect innovation performance, i.e., innovation output quantity and quality? How does the presence of a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in the TMT moderate this relationship?

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Motivation for Innovation – CEO Regulatory Focus as a Predictor of Innovation Performance

Innovation is at the heart of corporate entrepreneurship (CE) and central to sustaining competitive advantages (Porter 1990, Sharma and Chrisman 1999). However, volatility, unpredictability, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) of today’s business world and associated increasing efficiency pressures shift firms’ attention to both sides of the “innovation coin”, i.e., innovation output quantity and quality. Yet, longitudinal research scrutinizing the impact of CEOs’ personality and motivational sets and their interplay with the TMT on innovation output quantity and quality simultaneously remains surprisingly scarce. Addressing a research gap concerning CEO-level, psychological as well as TMT-related drivers of innovation performance, our panel data study draws on upper echelons (Hambrick and Mason 1984) and regulatory focus theory (Higgins 1997) to answer two major research questions: How does CEO regulatory focus affect innovation performance, i.e., innovation output quantity and quality? How does the presence of a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in the TMT moderate this relationship?