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| The Impact of the Entrepreneur's Seniority among Brothers and Sisters on Firm's Disruptive Innovation |
| Xu Zhengda1,Jia Heqi2,Lin Song2 |
| (1.Business School, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing 100048,China;2.Business School, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing 100081,China) |
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Abstract The impact of birth order on managers′ behavior has aroused the interest of scholars. Birth order refers to the ordering of a child by age among siblings in a family. The impression that "the oldest is simple and honest and the youngest is naughty" is deeply rooted in Chinese. Many entrepreneurs also reported in interviews that their entrepreneurial activities are related to their birth order. In a traditional Chinese family, the first-born child often takes the initiative to take on the responsibility of supporting the family. Such growing-up perceptions often influence adult behavior. So, how does the birth order of entrepreneurs affect their strategic decisions? The answer to this question is of great significance for better understanding the strategic behavior of the new ventures. On the other hand, China's unique one-child policy provides a special research environment for studying the impact of birth order on entrepreneurs. Since 1978, China has implemented the one-child policy which was officially terminated in 2016. This policy inevitably leads to more one-child families in China. This makes the relevant foreign research experience unsuitable for Chinese research context. Do entrepreneurs in a one-child family exhibit similar behavior with the first-born child in a large family? Are entrepreneurs who were born later more willing to “walk in different ways”? Disruptive innovation, as a unique form of innovation, is similar to the pursuit of different ways by individuals later in the birth order. These issues have attracted the attention of the authors, and these research gaps also provide research opportunities for this paper. This paper aims to find how an entrepreneur's birth order impact on firm′s disruptive innovation.#br#Psychological research has demonstrated that children born later have a younger psychological age and are more rebellious. Management research finds that managers' strategic decisions will be significantly affected by family or growth experience. The growth process can not be ignored. Thus, based on evolutionary theory, this paper analyzes the relationship between the entrepreneur′s birth order and the firm′s disruptive innovation. According to the evolutionary theory of biology, environmental factors should also be considered when investigating the relationship between individual birth order and individual behavioral decision-making. The research framework contains two moderated variables of firm growth and the firm′s top management team (TMT) composition. They are the current environmental conditions of the new ventures.#br#This paper collects data on relevant variables using questionnaires. In November 2018, 1,117 entrepreneurs were surveyed in the company's database, including basic founder CEO information and basic information of the new ventures. In March 2019, the professional data team revisited these companies to obtain the dependent variable. They obtained 671 available samples. In addition, new ventures are those founded in less than 8 years while this paper excludes the samples of enterprises that have been established for more than 8 years. The hypotheses are verified with the final sample of 285.#br#The results show that later-born entrepreneurs tend to engage in disruptive innovation behaviors. When firm growth is faster, the impact of the birth order on disruptive innovation is weakened. Compared with the faster growth of the companies, when the growth of the company is slow, the later-born entrepreneurs are more likely to engage in disruptive innovation behavior. Besides, when the proportion of male executives in TMT is higher, the influence of birth order on disruptive innovation is enhanced. Compared with the lower proportion of males in TMT, where the proportion of males is large, the later-born entrepreneurs are more likely to engage in disruptive innovation behavior.#br#This paper has several theoretical contributions. First, this paper investigates the impact of entrepreneurs′ birth order on the firm′s disruptive innovation, extending existing research on birth order. Secondly, it provides a new research perspective for the study of disruptive innovation. The impact of personal factors on disruptive innovation has not been verified in existing research. Finally, this paper also extends the application of evolutionary theory in entrepreneurship. It emphasizeshow corporate environment influences the relationship between entrepreneurs′ birth order on disruptive innovation behavior of the new ventures, which deepens the understanding of evolutionary theory in entrepreneurship. This paper also has practical strategic guidance for entrepreneurs. For example, entrepreneurs who are born later in the order of birth should pay more attention to their own strategic decisions in daily operations, and do not make too aggressive and risky behaviors.#br#
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Received: 29 November 2021
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