The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of non-founder CEO succession on firms’ research and development (R&D) decision, and further explore its mechanism and economic consequences.,Using founders’ personal-level information of entrepreneurial firms in the Chinese growth enterprise market from 2009 to 2015, the authors empirically investigate whether firms can be motivated to launch more R&D activities as the result of switching to non-founder CEOs. The author’s further test the impact of non-founder CEOs on R&D output to distinguish their motivation. Moreover, the authors use stepwise regression to explore the mechanism and possible channels.,The authors find that R&D investment significantly increases in firms with non-founder CEOs and the R&D output that comes in the form of patent exhibits an upward trending in numbers, too, ruling out non-founder CEOs’ incentive to chase private benefits. Specifically, the authors find that non-founder CEOs can promote R&D investment through their more professional human capital and better internal control. The authors also show mitigating effects under different circumstances on the relationship between non-founder CEOs and R&D investment.,This study helps the authors to understand the impact of non-founder CEO succession on R&D investment in emerging markets. It also indicates that human capital of non-founder CEOs is critical in driving firms’ innovation, proposing policy suggestions to improve formal intermediary labor market of professional CEOs.,This study provides elaborate theoretical analysis and empirical tests on the mechanism and economic consequences of (non-)founders’ impact on R&D activities.

中文翻译：

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非创始人首席执行官，研发投资和产出

这项研究的目的是调查非创始人CEO继任对公司研发决策的影响，并进一步探讨其机制和经济后果。在2009年至2015年的成长型企业市场中，作者们进行了实证研究，以探讨是否由于转用非创始人的首席执行官而激励企业开展更多的研发活动。作者进一步检验了非创始人CEO对研发产出的影响，以区分他们的动机。此外，作者使用逐步回归来探索其机理和可能的渠道。作者发现，具有非创始人首席执行官和研发投入的公司的研发投入显着增加。专利形式的D输出也呈现出上升趋势，排除了非创始人CEO追求私人利益的动机。特别是，作者发现，非创始人的首席执行官可以通过其更专业的人力资本和更好的内部控制来促进研发投资。作者还展示了在不同情况下对非创始人CEO与R＆D投资之间关系的缓解作用。该研究有助于作者了解非创始人CEO继任对新兴市场R＆D投资的影响。这也表明非创始人CEO的人力资本对于推动企业创新至关重要，并提出了改善专业CEO的正式中介劳动力市场的政策建议。