Research On The Impact Of Founders’ Cultural Imprinting Of Farming On Family Firms’ Innovation Investment

The founder,as the primary architect of the business,has a significant impact on the family business’s vision and mission,governance structure and strategic choices.According to imprinting theory,the growth environment that founders encounter during the course of their professional development will mold their self-perceptions and value preferences,which are then passed on to family members and the businesses through cultural imprinting and blood ties.The existing research on founders’ imprinting does not go far enough in exploring the heterogeneity of family firms,particularly when it comes to examining how different family businesses have innovated from the standpoint of Chinese traditional culture.The diversity of China’s regional cultures has been shaped by its vast territory and long history.Rice and wheat are two examples of different farming methods that have shaped different cultural foundations and,as a result,different individual characteristics.The farming culture of the founder’s birthplace can be used to establish a distinctive brand of beliefs and values that will continue to shape the founder and his family business.Therefore,it is of great theoretical and practical significance to analyze the influence of the founders’ cultural imprinting of farming on the innovation input of family firms.In addition,although pertinent studies on the sources of founders’ imprinting and their influence consequences have been relatively abundant,a systematic discussion of how the sources of imprints affect founders and their firms,how imprints are stimulated,and how imprints are influenced in various contexts is also lacking.This paper compares the literature on founders’ cultural imprinting of farming and family firms’ technological innovation using the frameworks of imprinting theory,regulatory focus theory,and socioemotional wealth theory.This paper defines the founder’s cultural imprinting of farming as the brand of collectivism and individualism that comes from the farming culture of his birthplace.Using the family firms listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares from 2008 to 2020 as the research subject,this paper examines the impact and mechanism of the founders’ collectivist-individualist cultural imprinting on family firms’innovation investment.It also examines the dynamic change process of the founders’ cultural imprinting of farming based on various situational factors.The conclusions are as follows:First,the collectivist cultural imprinting of the founders has a detrimental impact on family businesses’ innovation investment.Second,the degree of founder control is a channel through which founders’ collectivist cultural imprinting influences family businesses’ innovation investment.Third,the influence of the founders’collectivist cultural imprinting is strengthened by marketization level,diminished by political connection and intergenerational transmission.Further,this paper also explores the heterogeneous role of founders’ cultural imprinting of farming on innovation output and imprinting across different types of family firms.Under the influence of collectivist cultural imprinting,family businesses run by founders are more long-term oriented and have a beneficial impact on innovation output.Furthermore,the founder’s imprinting has a greater impact on innovation investment in created family firms and family firms with the founder as CEO.Compared with existing studies,the innovations of this paper are as follows.First,from the perspective of the culture of the founder’s birthplace,the connotation of the founder’s cultural imprint is examined in detail,we examine the founder’s cultural imprinting as a root cause of different governance patterns of family firms,and we improve our understanding of culture as the foundation of family firm innovation and competitiveness.Second,in the context of Chinese family firms,we construct an explanatory path of"imprinting-cognition-decision",and systematically investigate the influence mechanism and dynamic change process of founder’s imprinting,which enriches the theoretical framework of founder’s cultural imprinting of farming and family firm innovation.Third,we respond to the existing literature’s controversies on innovation investment in family firms and broaden the study of internal heterogeneity in family firms in the local Chinese context.