Top Management Team Heterogeneity, Strategic Intent Aggressiveness, and Innovative Capabilities

Abstract

Both aggressive strategic intent and heterogeneity of top management team (TMT) contribute to the development of organizational innovative capabilities, including those of administrative innovation and product innovation. This article presents a framework integrating strategic intent aggressiveness, TMT heterogeneity, administrative innovation capability, and product innovation capability. Based on the data of 84 manufacturers in People Republic of China (PRC), this study empirically examines the framework. The results after structural equation modeling show a significant support for the preceding relationships either directly or indirectly, except the enhancement of TMT heterogeneity on administrative innovation capability. In addition, two control variables of firm size and R&D investment also prove to moderate significantly the relationship between TMT heterogeneity and product innovation capability. These findings expand the understanding on the antecedents and contexts of organizational innovative capability that is an important component of dynamic capabilities.