IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/respol/v54y2025i3s0048733325000046.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Accounting backgrounds and technological innovation: Are accountant CEOs inferior innovators?

Author

Listed:
  • Cao, Jian
  • Chen, Feng
  • Li, Mingxiang
  • Luo, Xin

Abstract

Studies grounded in the theory of vocational personality suggest that accountants exhibit a conventional personality type in virtue of which they tend to be relatively uncreative. The well-observed phenomenon whereby corporations appoint CEOs with accounting backgrounds raises the question of how effectively accountant CEOs lead technological innovation. Using a large dataset of patents issued to U.S. firms from 2001 through 2018, we find that firms with accountant CEOs are associated with lower innovation output and a weaker propensity to pursue explorative innovations but greater efficiency in generating innovation output per unit of resource input. We also show that industry growth mitigates the negative effects of accountant CEOs on exploration and innovation while enhancing their capacity to promote innovation efficiency. Our findings delineate the trade-offs associated with accountant CEO appointments and highlight a significant yet underexplored aspect of a CEO's personal background—underlying vocational personality traits—as determinants that influence innovation pathways and strategic outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Cao, Jian & Chen, Feng & Li, Mingxiang & Luo, Xin, 2025. "Accounting backgrounds and technological innovation: Are accountant CEOs inferior innovators?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(3).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:54:y:2025:i:3:s0048733325000046
    DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2025.105175
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733325000046
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.respol.2025.105175?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Accountant CEOs; Technological innovation; Innovation efficiency; Exploitative innovation; Exploratory innovation; Vocational stereotype;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • M12 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Personnel Management; Executives; Executive Compensation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:54:y:2025:i:3:s0048733325000046. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/respol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.