Study On The Effect Mechanism Of Top Management Team Heterogeneity On Corporate Performance

Top management team is the key elements of corporate soft power,and is the core group which decides the enterprise's development and influence the corporate performance.As the economic environment get more complicated and the social division of labor get more elaboration,knowledge involved in organizational decisions become more and more widely.A single manager's experience and skills can not guarantee the accuracy of organizational decisions.Therefore,it is important for enterprise to build a diversified and complementary executive team in this background.As the core of enterprise decision-makers,top management group play an important role in the establishment of enterprise strategy and the improvement of enterprise performance.And the characteristics of top management team has became a focus of business enterprise and a hot topic of academic research.The research on the relationship between top management team heterogeneity and corporate performance is not a new research topic,but it is a controversial research topic.From the point of view of the existing research,scholars studied relationship between top management team heterogeneity and corporate performance,but had drew different conclusions.There are two different points of view.Some scholars think top management team heterogeneity can promote corporate performance,and the others think top management team heterogeneity have a negative impact on corporate performance.Visibly,how does top management team heterogeneity influence the corporate performance is still a “black box” which is not open.Through combing the literature and observing the actual phenomenon,the paper research the influence mechanism between top management team heterogeneity and corporate performance from the point of R&D investment.Based on the logic chain of “characteristics-behaviour-performance”,referencing the paradigm of “top management team characteristics-strategic choice-corporate performance”,regarding R&D as mediated variable,regarding equity restriction ratio as moderator variable,the paper studied the relationship between top management team heterogeneity and corporate performance,and the mediating effect of R&D and the moderating effect of equity restriction ratio.Firstly,the paper analyzed the relationship between top management team heterogeneity and corporate performance based on the theory of upper echelon theory,social generalization theory and information decision theory.And researched the main effect,mediating effect and moderating effect between the variables.Then the paper put forward the research hypothesis.Secondly,this study selected 340 small and medium-sized listed companies in 3 years which included 1020 research samples.And then the paper chose the indexes based on the existing research.After that,the study applied correlation analysis,multicollinearity analysis and panel data analysis to verify and analyze research hypothesis and conceptual model.The research conclusions include as follows:(1)The heterogeneity of age and gender have a negative impact on corporate performance,and also have a negative influence on R&D investment.(2)The heterogeneity of tenure and professional background have a positive impact on corporate performance,and also have a positive influence on R&D investment.(3)The heterogeneity of educational level has no relation with the corporate performance,and also has no relation with R&D investment.(4)The R&D investment has a mediating effect in the relationship between top management team heterogeneity and corporate performance.What's more,it has a positive impact on corporate performance and has hysteresis quality.(5)Equity restriction ratio plays a positive regulatory role in the relationship between the heterogeneity of professional background and corporate performance,and it also plays a positive regulatory role in the relationship between R&D investment and corporate performance.Finally,based on research results,the study put forward the corresponding countermeasures and Suggestions for the development of small and medium-sized listed companies: optimize the structure of top management team;strengthen the team conflict management;attach great importance to the corporate R&D investment;improve the mechanism of equity checks and balances.