Recently, Associate Professor Ju Xiaosheng from Basic Education College, NUDT, Jiang Shengjun from Wuhan University and Zhao Qifeng from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences collaborated to publish a paper entitled "Innovation effects of academic executives: Evidence from China" in Research Policy , with Ju Xiaosheng as the first author. This is NUDT's first paper in ABS 4* SSCI journal.
Research Policy is a top international journal in innovation management and science and technology policy with an average impact factor of 10.092 in the past five years. It is included in FT50 journal list and ranked as ABS 4* journal.
This paper has investigated the effects of academic executives on corporate technological capabilities and innovation performance among Chinese listed manufacturing firms from 2001 to 2015. Based on the upper echelons theory and related literature on corporate innovation and technological catch-up, this paper contributes to the literature by studying the innovation effects of academic executives and the underlying mechanisms, and revealing the significance of the flow of academic researchers to key corporate decision-making positions on technological innovation. The results demonstrate that firms with academic executives are more likely to implement technological advancement strategies by increasing firm basic research, collaborating with outside institutions, and providing incentives to knowledge workers. Consequently, they have enhanced technological capabilities, as well as a higher quantity and quality of innovation output. Findings suggest that promoting entrepreneurship of academic researchers is an effective way of diffusing and utilizing knowledge, and it provides an internal driving force for the enhancement of corporate technological capabilities, which is crucial for technological catch-up of firms in latecomer countries.