The Roles of Top Management Team Innovation Orientation and Institutional Support on Organisational Learning and Innovation Performance

Abstract

Through the upper echelons and institutional theories, this study examines how top management team (TMT) innovation orientation and institutional support facilitate organisational learning and pave the way for innovation performance. A hierarchical regression analysis was conducted using 552 entrepreneurial enterprises in mainland China. Our findings indicate that TMT innovation orientation positively mediates the relationship between organisational learning and innovation performance. Likewise, we found that institutional support positively moderates the relationship between organisational learning and TMT innovation orientation. The implications draw TMTs’ attention to consider enriching their innovation orientation by leveraging institutional support for their organisational learning and explorative and exploitative innovation performance. Lastly, government-tailored policies are essential to augment TMT innovation orientation to benefit their organisational learning and innovation performance.