ABSTRACT

Building on organisational failure learning and upper echelons theory, we examine the link between top management team (TMT) prior experiences and invention failure learning among research organisations. Specifically, we develop theoretical arguments to suggest that TMT founding experience and exposure to US culture facilitate organisational learning from failure. We test our theoretical reasoning using a longitudinal data set comprising 550 organisation-year observations of the patenting activities conducted by 39 research institutes in Germany. In support of our theoretical arguments, we find that TMT founding experience and TMT exposure to US culture positively moderate the link between prior invention failure and subsequent invention performance. Pointing to TMT experiences as a crucial contingency for whether organisations learn from failure, the present study contributes to the literature on organisational failure learning and upper echelons.

摘要

在组织失败学习和高层理论的基础上，我们研究了高层管理团队 (TMT) 先前的经验与研究组织之间的发明失败学习之间的联系。具体而言，我们提出了理论论点，以表明 TMT 的创始经验和对美国文化的接触有助于组织从失败中学习。我们使用纵向数据集来测试我们的理论推理，该数据集包含对德国 39 家研究机构进行的专利活动的 550 个组织年观察结果。为支持我们的理论论点，我们发现 TMT 创始经验和 TMT 接触美国文化积极调节先前发明失败与后续发明绩效之间的联系。指出 TMT 经验是组织是否从失败中吸取教训的关键偶然因素，