Senior Leadership as an Organizational Antecedent for the Creation of Technological Breakthroughs
01/10/2014 - 30/09/2018
Abstract
Recently, the interest of both scholars and practitioners in the creation of technological breakthroughs has increased strongly. Despite the key claim in the literature that innovation activities need specific guidance from the top, the role of a firm´s senior leadership as a key antecedent for innovation and organizational renewal remains underdeveloped. To address this, the aim of this proposal is to develop an in-depth understanding to what extent and in what specific ways a firm´s senior leadership influences (1) its internal technological search and innovation activities and (2) how this possibly materializes into technological breakthroughs. The project considers as a firm's senior leadership both its top management team (TMT) and its Board of Directors (BoD). First, I will start with an exploratory approach aimed at developing an in-depth understanding of the organizational processes and mechanisms through which the role of a firm's senior leadership materializes into the creation of technological breakthroughs. Second, I examine to what extent TMT compositional characteristics lead to a differential effect on a firm's ability to create technological breakthroughs. Third, I consider the role of the board of directors and examine to what extent their interplay with a firm´s TMT carries (dis)synergetic effects for their creation. I will consider these topics within a high-tech setting and rely on patents to measure the creation of technological breakthroughs.
Funding(s)
BOF
Researcher(s)
Principal investigator: Gilsing Victor
Co-principal investigator: Boone Christophe
Fellow: van de Wal Nino
Research team(s)
Management