In this research, using a capability perspective, we first define innovation based, strategic flexibility (ISF) as consisting of three lower-level capabilities- market sensing, resource reconfiguration, and proactiveness; then link it to new-product/innovation outcomes, and develop a new metric of ISF that is input–output based. This metric captures a firm’s realized flexibility in translating market opportunities into innovation output. We then examine the role of CEO ties with marketing and R&D in driving a firm's ISF. Combining survey data of 191 CEOs with objective performance data, we find that (a) ISF is positively influenced by the frequency and duration of the CEO's relationship with the two functional units, but negatively influenced by CEO's relationship closeness, and (b) ISF contributes to future profit growth of firms. We test the robustness of our findings to the potential violation of sequential-ignorability assumption as defined in the causal mediation literature and find the results to be robust. The results provide insights into the role of CEO characteristics in driving innovation, and upper echelon’s contributions to marketing.

在这项研究中，使用能力的角度，我们首先将基于创新的战略灵活性（ISF）定义为由三个较低级别的能力组成——市场感知、资源重新配置和主动性；然后将其与新产品/创新成果联系起来，并开发基于投入产出的 ISF 新指标。该指标反映了公司在将市场机会转化为创新产出方面实现的灵活性。然后，我们研究了 CEO 与营销和研发的联系在推动公司 ISF 中的作用。将 191 位 CEO 的调查数据与客观绩效数据相结合，我们发现（a）ISF 受 CEO 与两个职能部门关系的频率和持续时间的正向影响，但受 CEO 关系密切度的负向影响，并且（b）ISF 贡献对企业未来的利润增长。我们测试了我们的发现对因果中介文献中定义的潜在违反顺序可忽略性假设的稳健性，并发现结果是稳健的。结果提供了对 CEO 特征在推动创新中的作用以及高层对营销的贡献的见解。