创业者家庭行第与颠覆式创新间关系研究

The Impact of the Entrepreneur's Seniority among Brothers and Sisters on Firm's Disruptive Innovation

管理者家庭行第即出生顺序的影响已经引起学者们广泛关注,但是,创业者作为特殊管理者,学界对其出生顺序与企业战略间关系缺乏关注。基于进化理论,对创业者出生顺序与企业颠覆式创新行为间关系进行分析,将企业增长与高管团队性别构成作为环境因素纳入研究框架,探究其调节作用,并利用285位创业者相关数据对研究假设进行验证。结果表明:创业者出生顺序越靠后,越倾向于从事颠覆式创新行为;创业企业增长越快,出生顺序对企业颠覆式创新的影响越弱,即相比企业增长速度快的情况,企业增长速度慢时,出生顺序越靠后的创业者越倾向于从事颠覆式创新行为;创业企业男性高管占比越高,出生顺序对企业颠覆式创新的影响越强,即相比高管团队男性占比低的情况,男性占比较高时,出生顺序越靠后的创业者越倾向于从事颠覆式创新行为。

The impact of birth order on managers'behavior has aroused the interest of scholars.Birth order refers to the ordering of a child by age among siblings in a family.The impression that"the oldest is simple and honest and the youngest is naughty"is deeply rooted in Chinese.Many entrepreneurs also reported in interviews that their entrepreneurial activities are related to their birth order.In a traditional Chinese family,the first-born child often takes the initiative to take on the responsibility of supporting the family.Such growing-up perceptions often influence adult behavior.So,how does the birth order of entrepreneurs affect their strategic decisions?The answer to this question is of great significance for better understanding the strategic behavior of the new ventures.On the other hand,China's unique one-child policy provides a special research environment for studying the impact of birth order on entrepreneurs.Since 1978,China has implemented the one-child policy which was officially terminated in 2016.This policy inevitably leads to more one-child families in China.This makes the relevant foreign research experience unsuitable for Chinese research context.Do entrepreneurs in a one-child family exhibit similar behavior with the first-born child in a large family?Are entrepreneurs who were born later more willing to“walk in different ways”?Disruptive innovation,as a unique form of innovation,is similar to the pursuit of different ways by individuals later in the birth order.These issues have attracted the attention of the authors,and these research gaps also provide research opportunities for this paper.This paper aims to find how an entrepreneur's birth order impact on firm's disruptive innovation.Psychological research has demonstrated that children born later have a younger psychological age and are more rebellious.Management research finds that managers'strategic decisions will be significantly affected by family or growth experience.The growth process can not be ignored.Thus,based on evolutionary theory,this paper analyzes the relationship between the entrepreneur's birth order and the firm's disruptive innovation.According to the evolutionary theory of biology,environmental factors should also be considered when investigating the relationship between individual birth order and individual behavioral decision-making.The research framework contains two moderated variables of firm growth and the firm's top management team(TMT)composition.They are the current environmental conditions of the new ventures.This paper collects data on relevant variables using questionnaires.In November 2018,1,117 entrepreneurs were surveyed in the company's database,including basic founder CEO information and basic information of the new ventures.In March 2019,the professional data team revisited these companies to obtain the dependent variable.They obtained 671 available samples.In addition,new ventures are those founded in less than 8 years while this paper excludes the samples of enterprises that have been established for more than 8 years.The hypotheses are verified with the final sample of 285.The results show that later-born entrepreneurs tend to engage in disruptive innovation behaviors. When firm growthis faster, the impact of the birth order on disruptive innovation is weakened. Compared with the faster growth of the companies,when the growth of the company is slow, the later-born entrepreneurs are more likely to engage in disruptive innovationbehavior. Besides, when the proportion of male executives in TMT is higher, the influence of birth order on disruptiveinnovation is enhanced. Compared with the lower proportion of males in TMT, where the proportion of males islarge, the later-born entrepreneurs are more likely to engage in disruptive innovation behavior.This paper has several theoretical contributions. First, this paper investigates the impact of entrepreneurs' birth orderon the firm's disruptive innovation, extending existing research on birth order. Secondly, it provides a new research perspectivefor the study of disruptive innovation. The impact of personal factors on disruptive innovation has not been verifiedin existing research. Finally, this paper also extends the application of evolutionary theory in entrepreneurship. It emphasizeshow corporate environment influences the relationship between entrepreneurs' birth order on disruptive innovationbehavior of the new ventures, which deepens the understanding of evolutionary theory in entrepreneurship. This paper alsohas practical strategic guidance for entrepreneurs. For example, entrepreneurs who are born later in the order of birthshould pay more attention to their own strategic decisions in daily operations, and do not make too aggressive and risky behaviors.