Effects of Top Management Team Characteristics on Patent Strategic Change and Firm Performance

Yongtao Zhou; Yi Zhou; Li Zhang; Xu Zhao; Weijing Chen

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.762499

Effects of Top Management Team Characteristics on Patent Strategic Change and Firm Performance

Front Psychol. 2022 Jan 11:12:762499. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.762499. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Yongtao Zhou¹, Yi Zhou^{1

2}, Li Zhang¹, Xu Zhao³, Weijing Chen¹

Affiliations

¹ Business School, Hubei University, Wuhan, China.
² Economics and Management School, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
³ School of Economics and Management, Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an, China.

Abstract

Patent strategy is increasingly recognized as a vital contributor in promoting core competitiveness of an enterprise. A top management team (TMT) has been indicated as one of the key factors driving changes in patent strategy. Based on upper echelons theory, this study examines how TMT characteristics, including, team diversity, emotional intelligence, and safety climate, influence enterprise patent strategic change and, hence, the business outcome. The data from 930 top managers in 228 enterprises showed that the changes in patent strategies are significantly influenced by the characteristics of top managers. These aforementioned internal TMT factors have diverse effects on the speed and scope of the enterprise patent strategic change, which in turn affects firm performance in a positive and negative way, respectively.

Keywords: enterprise patent strategic change; firm performance; top management team characteristics; top management team emotional intelligence; top management team safety climate.