Learning from Openness: The Effects of Ceos’ Other-Regarding Values on Firms’ External Knowledge Acquisition

Abstract

We highlight the importance of CEOs’ values, a fundamental psychological attribute, and explore the influence of CEOs’ other-regarding values on firms’ willingness and capability to acquire external knowledge. Using a multi-wave survey of 820 CEOs in China, we find that CEOs’ other-regarding values promote firms’ external knowledge acquisition by enhancing their willingness to open up and capability to attract external partners. Such effects are contingent on external and internal factors that shape executives’ job demands. Technological uncertainty strengthens the positive effect of CEOs’ other-regarding values on external knowledge acquisition whereas firms’ innovation capacity weakens that effect. The study enriches our understanding of the micro-foundation of external knowledge acquisition and contributes to the broad literature on the “human side” of open innovation.

Keywords: CEO values, knowledge acquisition, innovation performance, upper echelons theory