【学术讲座】TOO BUSY TO WONDER? CEO JOB DEMANDS AND FIRM INNOVATION

Date & Time:13:30-15:00, May 24^th, 2019

Venue: Room 308, Tongji Building A

Language: English

Speaker: Prof. David H. Zhu (Arizona State University)

ABSTRACT

Although there is an increasing interest in how top executives influence firms’ innovation, extant research has focused exclusively on top executives’ cognition and individual characteristics. We draw from psychological research on job demands to explain how this key attribute of top executives’ job environment influences firms’ innovation. Our theory explains why CEO job demands negatively influence innovation, and how the negative effect of CEO job demands can be weakened by CEOs’ need for achievement and employees’ human capital. Using survey data collected on-site from hundreds of Chinese companies, we find support for our theory. Additional analyses reveal that a lack of innovative culture partially mediates the relationship between CEO job demands and innovation. This study contributes to research on innovation and strategic leadership by explaining how characteristics of CEOs’ job environment influence firms’ innovation.

Keywords: strategic leadership, CEOs, executive job demands, innovation, survey

Biography

One stream of Zhu's research builds on social psychological theories to examine how top executives make major decisions about corporate governance and corporate strategy. He has studied how fundamental group decision-making processes (e.g., group polarization, social categorization, social comparison) and personalities influence top executives’ major decisions (e.g., acquisitions, product and international diversification, imitation, executive compensation, board composition, executive turnover, and risk-taking spending). His current projects examine how top executives’ personalities, affect, and values influence key issues in behavioral strategy research. 

Another stream of Professor Zhu's research concerns the structure of corporate elite networks and interorganizational networks. He has examined how triads influence the formation and development of relations among top executives who have different demographic characteristics and personalities. His recent projects examine how top executives build and rebuild triads to facilitate interfirm coordination, and how structural positions in resource exchange networks influence market power, corporate strategies, and competitive advantages.

All the faculties and students are welcome to attend this lecture!