Top Management Team Functional Background and Corporate Venture Capital: The Mediating Role of Focus of Attention

Abstract

Abstract: Drawing on the upper echelons theory and the attention-based view, this study uses data from 657 listed manufacturing firms in China to examine the relationship between top management team’s functional background and corporate venture capital as well as the mediating role of attention focus by employing both content analysis and econometrics. The results show that the proportion of top management team’s out-put functional background is positively related to corporate venture capital, and the attention focus plays a partial mediating role between them. In addition, the out-put functional background also leads to external attention focus. This paper not only contributes to the upper echelons theory by opening up the “black box” between top management team’ characteristics and their strategic decision-making, but also has practical implications for Chinese private firm on how to practice corporate venture capital activities.

Key words: corporate venture capital, top management team functional background, focus of attention, upper echelons theory, attentionbased view

Feng Jian, Dai Weiqi, Zhou Dan. Top Management Team Functional Background and Corporate Venture Capital: The Mediating Role of Focus of Attention[J]. Management Review, 2022, 34(12): 121-130.

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