Top Executives' Ties,Technology Innovation Investment And Enterprise Performance

Top executives' ties means the relationship established between executives who work in two or more companies at the same time(Chen Shihua and Ma Chao,2011).In recent years,this kind of executive relationship established by concurrent behavior has been widely distributed among listed companies in China,forming a complex network of executive connections.As a kind of social network of top executives,top executives' ties has established a bridge of communication and connection between companies.The various resource information and social capital brought by it have important significance of business management.From the perspective of theory and practice,it is very necessary to study the possible impact of the existence of top executives' ties on the companies.Therefore,based on the consideration of social network,this study is devoted to exploring the relationship between top executives' ties and enterprise performance.Domestic social network research started relatively late.Most of the existing literature concerning the executive social networks established through concurrent behavior focused on interlocking directorates.The relationship between interlocking directorates and enterprise performance is still controversial,which maybe due to the lack of in-depth exploration of the mechanism and path of this kind of social network on enterprise performance.Therefore,based on the research idea of “executive social network-decision behavior-economic consequences”,this study introduces technology innovation investment as a mediator variable to explore the internal mechanism of the relationship between top executives' ties and enterprise performance.Firstly,this study reviews the relevant literature on top executives' ties,enterprise performance and technological innovation investment.Then,based on social network theory,resource dependence theory and inter-organizational imitation theory,this study uses A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2012 to 2016 as the research sample to examine the relationship among top executives' ties,technology innovation investment and enterprise performance,and explore the mediation effect of technology innovation investment in the relationship between top executives' ties and enterprise performance.Through theoretical analysis and empirical test,this study draws the following conclusions:(1)there is a significant positive correlation between top executives' ties and enterprise performance;(2)top executives' ties and technology innovation investment are positive correlated;(3)corporate technology innovation investment helps to improve enterprise performance;(4)technology innovation investment has partial mediation effect in the relationship between top executives' ties and enterprise performance,which means the total effect of top executives' ties on enterprise performance is partly achieved through technology innovation investment.The significance of this study is as follows: On the one hand,in theory,most of the interlocking directorates research only considered the concurrent behavior of directors.The supervisors and other senior executives were not included in the scope of investigation.The executives discussed in this study include directors,supervisors and management members,which broadens the scope of the research object.At the same time,the introduction of technology innovation investment as a mediator variable reveals the internal mechanism of the relationship between top executives' ties and enterprise performance,which enriches the research on the social network of executives.On the other hand,in practice,the research results of this study help to deepen the enterprises' perception of top executives' ties.The rational use of network of executive connections can avoid detours in decisionmaking with high uncertainty,such as innovation investment,reduce unnecessary decision-making losses,and thus achieve greater benefits.