The Transformation Ability And Alumni Network Of Senior Executives’ Alma Mater Influence Enterprise Innovation Research

As the saying goes,"School is a factory that makes people",the Alma mater background and alumni relationship have become a special ability nameplate and social bond in modern society.With the advent of a new round of technological and industrial revolution,innovation,as an important driving force for enterprises to maintain their core competitiveness,has received extensive attention from all walks of life.As the managers and decision-makers of an organization,the background and social relations of the senior management team will affect their preferences,cognitive patterns and value orientation in the formulation and implementation of strategies,and influence the behavior and performance of the company.if the senior executives are from universities with excellent transformation ability of scientific research achievements,can the enterprise learn advanced scientific and technological means and technical information from the transformation of scientific research achievements of colleges and universities,so as to improve the innovation level of the enterprise? If enterprises are connected because of alumni relationship of executives,will the information and resources brought to enterprises by this network have an impact on the innovation of the company?Based on the data of Chinese high-tech enterprises listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share markets from 2011 to 2019 and the data of invention patent transfer of universities in Chinese Mainland retrieved from Inco Pat platform,this paper establishes alumni network connected by Alma mater of senior executives and quantifies the central position of senior executives in alumni network through social network analysis technology.The paper analyzes the relationship between the transformation ability of scientific research achievements,alumni network and their interaction on enterprise innovation.The moderating effects of TMT background heterogeneity,corporate governance level and financing constraints on TMT research achievement transformation and alumni network on firm innovation are further investigated.The results show that :(1)the transformation ability of the Alma mater has a significant positive impact on enterprise innovation.(2)the centrality of alumni network has a significant positive impact on enterprise innovation.(3)The higher the centrality of the alumni network is,the better the transformation ability of the Alma mater will improve the innovation level of the firm.The alumni network positively moderates the relationship between the transformation ability of the Alma mater and enterprise innovation.(4)Both the overseas background and career background heterogeneity of the TMT significantly promote enterprise innovation,and have a positive moderating effect on the relationship between TMT’s Alma mater’s research achievement capability and enterprise innovation;There is a negative correlation between gender background heterogeneity and firm innovation,and gender background heterogeneity has a negative moderating effect on the transformation of university research achievements and firm innovation.(5)Corporate governance level has a positive impact on enterprise innovation,and governance level has a positive moderating effect on alumni network influenced enterprises;Financing constraint has a negative impact on the level of enterprise innovation,and financing constraint has a positive moderating effect on the impact of alumni network on enterprise innovation.The conclusions can provide some reference and inspiration for enterprises’ innovation strategy planning,optimization of senior management team structure,transformation management of university research achievements and policy making of regional industry-university-research institute innovation collaboration.