Abstract
While CEOs have been considered as an important driver for firm innovation, current research has not gained many insights on whether CEO social networks can influence various innovation outcomes. In this paper, we integrate the upper-echelons perspective with social networks theory to examine the effects of structural attributes of a CEO's social network on exploratory innovation. Drawing from a structural embeddedness perspective, we predict that CEO network centrality has an inverted U-shape effect on exploratory innovation, whereas structural holes have a positive relationship with exploratory innovation. In addition, we hypothesize that structural holes reinforce the curvilinear effect of network centrality. We tested our hypotheses with a sample of 1,831 CEOs in the U.S. from 2000 to 2016. Our findings provided supports for our predictions. Our study contributes to strategic leadership and innovation research.
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