Characteristics of Top Management Team and Enterprise Independent Innovation: The Mediating Role of Alliance Network Characteristics

Based on social capital theory and resource-based view, this study explores the mechanism of the background characteristics of top management team on the independent innovation of enterprises with consideration of the functional background and special working experience. From the angel of top management teams, we clarify the mediating role of the quantitative characteristics and partner characteristics of alliance network in the enterprises. Using the patent data of the listed companies in the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges of China's emerging strategic industries, we empirically test the proposed theoretical framework. It is found that the functional background of top management team has a significant positive correlation with the independent innovation of the enterprises, and the main three functional backgrounds, namely output functions, throughput functions and supporting functions, have different positive influences on the independent innovation. While, there are inverted u-shaped relationships between two characteristics of alliance network above and the independent innovation of enterprises respectively. In addition, these two characteristics play a mediating role in the relation of top management team with enterprise independent innovation.