The influence of boards and top management teams on corporate entrepreneurship

I employ resource dependence and upper echelons logic to study the influence of upper echelons groups on corporate entrepreneurship. I suggest modeling both boards and top management teams (TMTs) improves our understanding of corporate entrepreneurship. I inquire how boards and top management teams influence corporate entrepreneurship. Specifically, I study individual, combined, and interactive influences of board and TMT human and social capital on corporate entrepreneurship. I collect cross-sectional data from 206 biopharmaceutical corporations and construct a corporate entrepreneurship index. Regression supports the influence of board and/or TMT technical and entrepreneurial experience, yet it does not support the benefits of combined or interactive models. Supplemental analysis of specific aspects of corporate entrepreneurship does support combined board/TMT models over board or TMT models in predicting corporate entrepreneurship indicators. For example, the combined board/TMT model of R&D expense explains 10% more variance than either of the other models. I conclude that analysis of specific aspects of corporate entrepreneurship may support the need for models that incorporate both board and TMT influence in predicting corporate entrepreneurship and related actions by firms.