How Top Management Team Social Status Impacts Innovation

Abstract

Scholars have investigated the effect that top management team (TMT) status has on several organizational dimensions, including strategic decision, risk propensity, and, ultimately, performance. However, the existing literature is relatively silent on the effect of TMT status on innovation. Our scope is to cover that research gap. Grounding our reasoning on two different yet intertwined literature streams – one on the TMT status and the other on innovation – we predict that TMT status should be positively correlated with innovation and its market value, but not with its scientific value. Relying on a unique, hand-crafted dataset composed of 833 firm-years' observations for the period 2005–2010, we can validate our hypotheses. Our study contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between TMT status and innovation generated by the respective firm. Finally, the study discusses limitations and recommendations for further research.