Abstract
Dominant national political ideology during founding or initial public offering (IPO) shapes a firm’s structures and routines—leaving an organizational ideological imprint—and persistently affects firms’ innovation. I argue that the communist (capitalist) ideological imprint discourages (encourages) firms’ innovation enduringly. To triangulate the theoretical mechanism, I argue that the communist (capitalist) ideological imprint weakens (strengthens) the impact of two determinants of innovation, i.e. competitive aspirations and organizational slack. Meanwhile, I differentiate types of sensitive periods when imprinting processes take place and argue that founding imprint is more powerful than its IPO counterpart. Finally, I suggest that the subsequent IPO imprint modifies the influence of founding imprint, and therefore imprinting is a punctuated process. Empirical analysis of a longitudinal sample of worldwide firms’ research and development (R&D) investment supports my hypotheses. My study contributes to imprinting theory and strategy literature.
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