PRODUCT INNOVATION AND EDUCATIONAL DIVERSITY IN TOP AND MIDDLE MANAGEMENT TEAMS

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Schubert, Torben; Tavassoli, Sam
• 署名单位: Lund University; Fraunhofer Gesellschaft; Fraunhofer Germany; Fraunhofer Systems & Innovation Research; Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT)
• 刊物名称: ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0001-4273
• DOI: 10.5465/amj.2017.0741
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 272-294
• 关键词: research-and-development; firm performance; GENDER DIVERSITY; demographic diversity; DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES; COGNITIVE DIVERSITY; STRATEGY PROCESS; UPPER ECHELONS; FAULTLINES; INFORMATION

摘要

The effects of diversity in management teams on firm innovation have become an important topic in strategic management. With a few exceptions, however, the literature has focused on diversity in top management teams (TMTs), while the role of diversity in lower management levels, particularly middle management teams (MMTs), has usually been neglected. In this paper, we intend to fill this gap by explicitly differentiating between the effects of diversity in TMTs and MMTs. By matching various firm-level and individual-level datasets, we compile a linked employer-employee panel dataset for Sweden for the period 2004-2012. Focusing on measures of educational diversity, we find that the effects differ considerably between MMTs and TMTs. TMTs' diversity determines whether firms engage in innovation activities at all, while MMTs' diversity affects the actual outcome of innovation processes, in particular successful product innovations and their degree of market novelty.