The Study On The Relationship Among Background Characteristic Of Chairman,Technological Innovation And Firm Performance

The American scholars Hambrick and Mason jointly proposed the Upper Echelons Theory in 1984,which links the background characteristics of enterprise executives with firm performance.Scholars at home and abroad have studied the theory from all sides,previous research has shown that the background characteristics of enterprise executives will have a significant impact on firm performance,but the mechanism of action between them is unclear;in addition,the existing literature mainly study the background characteristics of enterprise CEO or other enterprise executives influence on firm performance,to enterprise's supreme leader——chairman,the study of relationship between its background characteristics and firm performance is relatively lacking.Both the CEO and other managers are appointed by the chairman,the personal characteristics of the chairman will greatly influence the appointment of business managers,so it is necessary to study the relationship between the background characteristics of the chairman and the firm performance.Increasingly fierce market competition makes enterprises pay more attention to improving technological innovation ability,the performance level of different enterprises is often different due to different innovation ability,and technological innovation as an important strategy,it is usually decided by chairman,in the making decision process tend to be affected by the background characteristics of chairman.Based on the above background,this paper based on the software and information technology services industry data of the Growth Enterprise Market from 2012 to 2016,the research method of mediating variables is used,take enterprise technical innovation as the intermediary variable,to study chairman's age,technological background,whether CEO duality and tenure influence on firm performance and enterprise technological innovation,in addition,examine the mediating effect between background characteristic of chairman and firm performance,with a view to building a bridge between the chairman's background characteristics and firm performance,it is better to reveal the black box of the influence mechanism of the chairman's background characteristics on the firm performance.This paper is based on the Upper Echelons Theory,the theory of technological innovation and the theory of strategic leadership,firstly,theoretical analysis is made on the correlation among background characteristic of chairman,firm performance and technological innovation;then start with the background characteristic of chairman,the chairman's age,technological background,whether CEO duality and tenure reflect background characteristic of chairman,the ratio of R&D investment to revenue and TobinQ reflect the enterprise's technological innovation and firm performance respectively.The regression analysis is used to analyze the relationship between chairman's background characteristics and firm performance and the relationship between chairman's background characteristics and enterprise technical innovation;on this basis,using the testing method of mediation effect inspects technological innovation mediating effects between background characteristic of chairman and firm performance,clarify the mediating effect of technological innovation,more clearly reflects the mechanism between background characteristic of chairman and firm performance.The results of the empirical regression show that chairman's age,CEO duality and tenure are significantly positively correlated with firm performance;the technical background of the chairman is significantly positively correlated with the technological innovation of the enterprise;chairman's age,CEO duality and tenure are negatively correlated with enterprise technological innovation;as mediate variable,the technological innovation has some mediating effects in the relationship between the chairman's age and firm performance,there are some mediating effects in the relationship between the chairman's tenure and firm performance too,however,there are complete mediating effects in the relationship between CEO duality and firm performance.According to the research conclusions and combining with the reality of Chinese enterprises,I am putting forward some suggestions on perfecting mechanism for selection and appointment,improving technological innovation of enterprises and strengthening the cooperation of industry and research,for helping Chinese enterprises promote technological innovation standard and firm performance.The theoretical framework of my paper is based on the Upper Echelons Theory,the theory of technological innovation and the theory of strategic leadership,according to the research process of “personal characteristics ? enterprise operating behavior ? enterprise operating results”,I researched the relationship between background characteristic of chairman and firm performance,I also researched the relationship between background characteristic of chairman and technological innovation,using the research methods of the mediating effect,inspects technological innovation mediating effects between background characteristic of chairman and firm performance,it provides empirical support to explain the influence of the enterprise background characteristic of chairman on the enterprise technological innovation behavior and further influence the firm performance.In addition,it is of great practical significance to perfect the selection mechanism of the top leaders of enterprises,improve the standard of technological innovation and promote the improvement of firm performance.