Data and Code for: Radical and Incremental Innovation: The Roles of Firms, Managers, and Innovators
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Daron Acemoglu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Ufuk Akcigit, University of Chicago; Murat Alp Celik, University of Toronto
Version: View help for Version V1
| Name | File Type | Size | Last Modified |
|---|---|---|---|
| AAC Repository | 05/26/2021 12:17:AM |
Project Citation:
Acemoglu, Daron, Akcigit, Ufuk, and Celik, Murat Alp. Data and Code for: Radical and Incremental Innovation: The Roles of Firms, Managers, and Innovators. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2022. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2022-06-24. https://doi.org/10.3886/E125161V1
Project Description
Summary:
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This is the data and code for "Radical and Incremental Innovation: The Roles of Firms, Managers, and Innovators".
Abstract: This paper investigates the determinants of radical (“creative”) innovations – innovations that break new ground in terms of knowledge creation. After presenting a motivating model focusing on the choice between incremental and radical innovation, and on how managers of different ages and human capital are sorted across different types of firms, we provide firm-level and patent-level evidence that firms that are more open to hiring younger managers (those that are more “open to disruption”) are significantly more likely to engage in radical innovation. Our measures of radical innovations proxy for innovation quality (average number of citations per patent) and creativity (fraction of superstar innovators, the likelihood of a very high number of citations, and generality of patents). We present robust evidence that firms that have a comparative advantage in new innovations (e.g., because they are more open to disruption) generate more creative innovations, but we also show that once the effect of the sorting of young managers to such firms is factored in, the (causal) impact of manager age on creative innovations, though positive, is small.
Abstract: This paper investigates the determinants of radical (“creative”) innovations – innovations that break new ground in terms of knowledge creation. After presenting a motivating model focusing on the choice between incremental and radical innovation, and on how managers of different ages and human capital are sorted across different types of firms, we provide firm-level and patent-level evidence that firms that are more open to hiring younger managers (those that are more “open to disruption”) are significantly more likely to engage in radical innovation. Our measures of radical innovations proxy for innovation quality (average number of citations per patent) and creativity (fraction of superstar innovators, the likelihood of a very high number of citations, and generality of patents). We present robust evidence that firms that have a comparative advantage in new innovations (e.g., because they are more open to disruption) generate more creative innovations, but we also show that once the effect of the sorting of young managers to such firms is factored in, the (causal) impact of manager age on creative innovations, though positive, is small.
Funding Sources:
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National Science Foundation (SES-1459871);
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (G-2014-13635);
Ewing Marion Kau§man Foundation (20140501);
ARO MURI (W911NF-12-1-0509);
Toulouse Network on Information Technology
Scope of Project
Subject Terms:
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economic growth;
innovation;
organizational culture
JEL Classification:
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O33 Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
O40 Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity: General
O43 Institutions and Growth
P10 Capitalist Systems: General
P16 Capitalist Systems: Political Economy
Z10 Cultural Economics; Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology: General
O33 Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
O40 Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity: General
O43 Institutions and Growth
P10 Capitalist Systems: General
P16 Capitalist Systems: Political Economy
Z10 Cultural Economics; Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology: General
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