IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v135y2021icp78-98.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The value of managerial ability and general ability for inventor CEOs

Author

Listed:
  • Lin, Zhilu
  • Patel, Pankaj
  • Oghazi, Pejvak

Abstract

Although inventor CEOs drive firm innovation, widely recognized CEO abilities—general ability or managerial ability—could be central to leveraging CEOs’ invention abilities to drive firm innovation. Using CEO copatentors’ invention ability (defined as CEO patent coauthors’ average number of forward citations over the average number of patents) as an instrument for inventor CEOs, we study the value of CEOs’ general ability and managerial ability in enhancing the influence of inventor CEOs on firm innovation. Firms led by inventor CEOs with higher general abilities spur greater firm innovation. Surprisingly, however, firms led by inventor CEOs with a higher level of managerial ability realized lower firm innovation. Inventor CEOs with greater general abilities also translate firm innovation into better product-market outcomes and spur more firm innovation under better corporate governance. Our findings have implications for the influence of an inventor CEO on firm innovation outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Lin, Zhilu & Patel, Pankaj & Oghazi, Pejvak, 2021. "The value of managerial ability and general ability for inventor CEOs," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 78-98.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:135:y:2021:i:c:p:78-98
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.06.014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296321004094
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.06.014?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ulrike Malmendier & Geoffrey Tate, 2005. "CEO Overconfidence and Corporate Investment," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(6), pages 2661-2700, December.
    2. Bok Baik & David B. Farber & Sam (Sunghan) Lee, 2011. "CEO Ability and Management Earnings Forecasts," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(5), pages 1645-1668, December.
    3. Leonid Kogan & Dimitris Papanikolaou & Amit Seru & Noah Stoffman, 2017. "Technological Innovation, Resource Allocation, and Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 132(2), pages 665-712.
    4. Yihui Pan & Tracy Yue Wang & Michael S. Weisbach, 2015. "Learning About CEO Ability and Stock Return Volatility," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 28(6), pages 1623-1666.
    5. Kimberly J. Cornaggia & Gopal V. Krishnan & Changjiang Wang, 2017. "Managerial Ability and Credit Ratings," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(4), pages 2094-2122, December.
    6. Sunder, Jayanthi & Sunder, Shyam V. & Zhang, Jingjing, 2017. "Pilot CEOs and corporate innovation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(1), pages 209-224.
    7. Sudip Datta & Mai Iskandar-Datta, 2014. "Upper-echelon executive human capital and compensation: Generalist vs specialist skills," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(12), pages 1853-1866, December.
    8. Mishra, Dev R., 2014. "The dark side of CEO ability: CEO general managerial skills and cost of equity capital," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 390-409.
    9. Paul Gompers & Joy Ishii & Andrew Metrick, 2003. "Corporate Governance and Equity Prices," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(1), pages 107-156.
    10. Sariol, Ana M. & Abebe, Michael A., 2017. "The influence of CEO power on explorative and exploitative organizational innovation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 38-45.
    11. Peter Demerjian & Baruch Lev & Sarah McVay, 2012. "Quantifying Managerial Ability: A New Measure and Validity Tests," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(7), pages 1229-1248, July.
    12. Bronwyn H. Hall & Adam B. Jaffe & Manuel Trajtenberg, 2001. "The NBER Patent Citation Data File: Lessons, Insights and Methodological Tools," NBER Working Papers 8498, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Custódio, Cláudia & Ferreira, Miguel A. & Matos, Pedro, 2013. "Generalists versus specialists: Lifetime work experience and chief executive officer pay," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(2), pages 471-492.
    14. Florian Ederer & Gustavo Manso, 2013. "Is Pay for Performance Detrimental to Innovation?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(7), pages 1496-1513, July.
    15. Ibrahim Bostan & G. Mujtaba Mian, 2019. "Inventor Chief Executive Officers and Firm Innovation," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 19(2), pages 247-286, June.
    16. Chen, Wanyu (Tina) & Zhou, Gaoguang (Stephen) & Zhu, Xindong (Kevin), 2019. "CEO tenure and corporate social responsibility performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 292-302.
    17. Cheung, Kwok Tong Samuel & Naidu, Dharmendra & Navissi, Farshid & Ranjeeni, Kumari, 2017. "Valuing talent: Do CEOs' ability and discretion unambiguously increase firm performance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 15-35.
    18. Chen, Yangyang & Podolski, Edward J. & Veeraraghavan, Madhu, 2015. "Does managerial ability facilitate corporate innovative success?," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 313-326.
    19. Lee Fleming, 2001. "Recombinant Uncertainty in Technological Search," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(1), pages 117-132, January.
    20. Mukherjee, Abhiroop & Singh, Manpreet & Žaldokas, Alminas, 2017. "Do corporate taxes hinder innovation?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(1), pages 195-221.
    21. Gary S. Becker, 1962. "Investment in Human Capital: A Theoretical Analysis," NBER Chapters, in: Investment in Human Beings, pages 9-49, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Jie Chen & Xicheng Liu & Wei Song, 2018. "CEO general managerial skills and corporate social responsibility," Working Papers 2018-16, Swansea University, School of Management.
    23. David Hirshleifer & Angie Low & Siew Hong Teoh, 2012. "Are Overconfident CEOs Better Innovators?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(4), pages 1457-1498, August.
    24. Kenneth Yung & Chen Chen, 2018. "Managerial ability and firm risk-taking behavior," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 1005-1032, November.
    25. Li, Guan-Cheng & Lai, Ronald & D’Amour, Alexander & Doolin, David M. & Sun, Ye & Torvik, Vetle I. & Yu, Amy Z. & Fleming, Lee, 2014. "Disambiguation and co-authorship networks of the U.S. patent inventor database (1975–2010)," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(6), pages 941-955.
    26. Steven N. Kaplan & Mark M. Klebanov & Morten Sorensen, 2012. "Which CEO Characteristics and Abilities Matter?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(3), pages 973-1007, June.
    27. Andreou, Panayiotis C. & Karasamani, Isabella & Louca, Christodoulos & Ehrlich, Daphna, 2017. "The impact of managerial ability on crisis-period corporate investment," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 107-122.
    28. Brockman, Paul & Lee, Hye Seung (Grace) & Salas, Jesus M., 2016. "Determinants of CEO compensation: Generalist–specialist versus insider–outsider attributes," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 53-77.
    29. Coles, Jeffrey L. & Daniel, Naveen D. & Naveen, Lalitha, 2006. "Managerial incentives and risk-taking," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 431-468, February.
    30. Gounopoulos, Dimitrios & Pham, Hang, 2018. "Specialist CEOs and IPO survival," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 217-243.
    31. Tabesh, Pooya & Vera, Dusya & Keller, Robert T., 2019. "Unabsorbed slack resource deployment and exploratory and exploitative innovation: How much does CEO expertise matter?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 65-80.
    32. Pornsit Jiraporn & Veeranuch Leelalai & Shenghui Tong, 2016. "The effect of managerial ability on dividend policy: how do talented managers view dividend payouts?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(12), pages 857-862, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Corvello, Vincenzo & Belas, Jaroslav & Giglio, Carlo & Iazzolino, Gianpaolo & Troise, Ciro, 2023. "The impact of business owners’ individual characteristics on patenting in the context of digital innovation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 155(PA).
    2. Duan, Yunlong & Deng, Zhiqing & Liu, Hanxiao & Yang, Meng & Liu, Meiwu & Wang, Xiang, 2022. "Exploring the mediating effect of managerial ability on knowledge diversity and innovation performance in reverse cross-border M&As: Evidence from Chinese manufacturing corporations," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 247(C).
    3. Sadeen Ghafoor & Weidong Huo & Man Wang & Yunjiang Geng & Muhammad Zulfiqar & Muhammad Usman Yousaf, 2024. "Unique types and innovation input of family firm CEOs: moderating role of managerial ability in Chinese listed firms," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Byun, SeongK. & Fuller, Kathleen & Lin, Zhilu, 2021. "The costs and benefits associated with inventor CEOs," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    2. Cheng, Lingsha & Cheung, Adrian (Waikong), 2021. "Is there a dark side of managerial ability? Evidence from the use of derivatives and firm risk in China," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2).
    3. Yung, Kenneth & Nguyen, Trung, 2020. "Managerial ability, product market competition, and firm behavior," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 102-116.
    4. Puspita Ghaniy Anggraini & Mahfud Sholihin, 2023. "What do we know about managerial ability? A systematic literature review," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 73(1), pages 1-30, February.
    5. Cláudia Custódio & Miguel A. Ferreira & Pedro Matos, 2019. "Do General Managerial Skills Spur Innovation?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(2), pages 459-476, February.
    6. Tu Nguyen & Jing Zhao, 2021. "Industry tournament incentives and corporate innovation," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(9-10), pages 1797-1845, October.
    7. Kenneth Yung & Chen Chen, 2018. "Managerial ability and firm risk-taking behavior," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 1005-1032, November.
    8. Shang, Chenguang, 2021. "Dare to play with fire? Managerial ability and the use of short-term debt," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    9. Efstathios Magerakis & Ahsan Habib, 2022. "Environmental uncertainty and corporate cash holdings: The moderating role of CEO ability," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 22(3), pages 402-432, September.
    10. Pham, Mia Hang, 2020. "In law we trust: Lawyer CEOs and stock liquidity," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    11. Khoo, Joye & (Wai Kong) Cheung, Adrian, 2022. "Managerial ability and debt maturity," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1).
    12. Dimitrios Gounopoulos & Georgios Loukopoulos & Panagiotis Loukopoulos, 2021. "CEO education and the ability to raise capital," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 67-99, January.
    13. Francis, Bill & Mani, Suresh Babu & Sharma, Zenu & Wu, Qiang, 2021. "The impact of organization capital on firm innovation," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    14. Jeffrey L. Callen & Xiaohua Fang, 2020. "Local Gambling Norms and Audit Pricing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 151-173, June.
    15. Ben Abdesslem, Rim & Chkir, Imed & Dabbou, Halim, 2022. "Is managerial ability a moderator? The effect of credit risk and liquidity risk on the likelihood of bank default," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    16. Ismail, Ahmad & Mavis, Christos P., 2022. "A new method for measuring CEO overconfidence: Evidence from acquisitions," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    17. Chang, Xin & Fu, Kangkang & Low, Angie & Zhang, Wenrui, 2015. "Non-executive employee stock options and corporate innovation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 168-188.
    18. Hsu, Yuan-Teng & Huang, Chia-Wei & Koedijk, Kees G., 2023. "Unintended consequences of compensation peer groups on corporate innovation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    19. Egor Evdokimov & Dean Hanlon & Edwin KiaYang Lim, 2022. "Do Generalist CEOs Magnify Boardroom Backscratching?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 181(1), pages 221-247, November.
    20. Park, June Woo & Nam, Giseok & Tsang, Albert & Lee, Yung-Jae, 2022. "Firstborn CEOs and credit ratings," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(4).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:135:y:2021:i:c:p:78-98. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.