Scholars have shown increasing interest in the relationship between top executives and firm innovation. However, no systematic effort has been made to integrate or synthesize the theoretical mechanisms in this literature. Without such an integrative framework, this field remains fragmented, offering limited guidance for future research. In this study, we integrate and synthesize findings from over 100 articles on the effects of top executives on innovation. Our review identifies four major categories of theoretical mechanisms (Motivations, Cognitions, Leadership Behaviors, and Influences), eleven sub-categories of mechanisms, and three prominent causal chains in the literature. Our review also examines how these mechanisms align with those in the broader innovation literature, highlighting numerous opportunities for future research. These include deeper integration within and across four categories of mechanisms in strategic leadership literature, drawing insights from strategic leadership research to better inform future research on organizational motivations for innovation, examining top executives’ economic motivations for innovation, and elucidating how strategic leaders shape absorptive and economic capacities to innovate.

中文翻译：

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高管如何以及为何影响创新：机制和研究议程综述


学者们对高层管理人员与公司创新之间的关系表现出越来越大的兴趣。然而，尚未系统地整合或综合本文献中的理论机制。如果没有这样的综合框架，这个领域仍然是分散的，为未来的研究提供的指导有限。在这项研究中，我们整合并综合了 100 多篇关于高管对创新影响的文章的结果。我们的综述确定了四大类理论机制（动机、认知、领导行为和影响）、11 个子类别的机制以及文献中的三个突出的因果链。我们的综述还研究了这些机制如何与更广泛的创新文献中的机制保持一致，强调了未来研究的众多机会。这些包括战略领导力文献中四类机制内部和之间的更深入整合，从战略领导力研究中汲取见解以更好地为未来关于组织创新动机的研究提供信息，研究高层管理人员的创新经济动机，以及阐明战略领导者如何塑造吸收和经济创新能力。