IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v12y2025i1d10.1057_s41599-025-04426-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Executives’ postgraduate education and corporate ambidextrous innovation: evidence from China’s listed companies

Author

Listed:
  • Pei Chen

    (Dongbei University of Finance and Economics
    East China Normal University)

  • Hongyu Liu

    (Dongbei University of Finance and Economics)

  • Yifang Ma

    (Southern University of Science and Technology)

  • Fan Jiang

    (Southern University of Science and Technology)

Abstract

This study examines the impact of executives’ postgraduate education on the ambidextrous innovation capabilities of Chinese listed companies, with an emphasis on both exploratory and exploitative innovation. Using data from A-share listed firms in Shanghai and Shenzhen between 2011 and 2020, the findings show that CEOs’ postgraduate education significantly promotes exploratory innovation. Additionally, the educational level of the top management team is positively associated with this type of innovation. The impact is further amplified by the CEO’s gender and age, as well as the gender composition and average age of the top management team, with these effects being more pronounced when the CEO is male or older. While the CEO’s influence on innovation in state-owned enterprises is limited, postgraduate education in non-state-owned firms has a stronger positive effect on exploratory innovation. Regardless of ownership structure, the top management team’s postgraduate education consistently promotes exploratory innovation, although it does not significantly affect exploitative innovation. This research contributes to understanding how postgraduate education influences corporate innovation and offers valuable insights for executive recruitment, corporate governance, and graduate education programs.

Suggested Citation

  • Pei Chen & Hongyu Liu & Yifang Ma & Fan Jiang, 2025. "Executives’ postgraduate education and corporate ambidextrous innovation: evidence from China’s listed companies," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-16, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:12:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-025-04426-6
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-025-04426-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-025-04426-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-025-04426-6?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

    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:pal:palcom:v:12:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-025-04426-6. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    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.