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Chinese family business is experiencing a pivotal phase of succession. Although innovation can help family firms realise the goal of long-term development, it remains under-investigated whether and how the second generation influence family firms’ innovation. Based on the controversy on the successors’ behaviour, we explore the effect of the second generation on family firms’ innovation, both input and output included. We find that the engagement of the second generation can foster firm innovation, encompassing both the willingness and the high-quality outcomes of innovation. Also, this effect is more pronounced when family firms own greater competitiveness over their peers and exhibit higher level of financialisation. Path analysis indicates that the second generation may lead to reduced agency costs, minimised appropriation of receivables by large shareholders, and increased risk tolerance regarding innovation, thereby fostering a greater willingness to innovate and yield superior innovation outputs. We thus add to the literature on the succession in family firms and derive practical implications for family firms aiming to bring together family succession and innovative practices.

In order to study the development trend of the Internet’s role in supporting enterprise innovation, a new method based on deep learning algorithm and knowledge graph technology is proposed. Experiments show that the accuracy, F1 value, recall rate and precision of the algorithm are distinctly improved compared with the existing algorithms. A new algorithm is applied to analyze the innovation evolution of Chinese enterprises, using papers, patents and other documents between 1905 and 2020 as data sources. Based on the experimental results, the development stages can be divided into five stages. The research focus is on product R&D innovation, manufacturing innovation, marketing innovation, resource allocation innovation and organizational innovation. It can be seen that the development process of the Internet supporting enterprise innovation system is an evolutionary development process from point to line, to surface, to the body, and to the ecosystem.

Innovation has been promoted as a panacea to solve the long-standing problem of how organizations deal with complexities associated with uncertainty and instability in ever changing environments. information systems (IS) research focusing on innovation has adopted several perspectives to reveal a rich context in which the innovation surfaces as a phenomenon. Examination of a rich context may contribute to a better understanding of an extent to which uncertainty and instability can affect or be affected by innovation strategies that require various innovation efforts in an organization. In this regard, one of the most critical issues is to ensure that these innovation efforts can achieve a successful outcome via their strategic and structural alignment. In this research, we propose an integrated framework that addresses an innovation alignment issue by employing three high-level notions (strategic dimensions, structural characteristics, strategizing acts). The integrated framework has been used rigorously in two cases for an explorative purpose. Our interpretation of the evidence suggests that strategizing act, as a high-level notion has an explanatory power to articulate the associations between strategic dimensions and structural characteristics. Among other findings, we have observed that the closed, incremental and process-oriented innovation strategy is particularly relevant to the corporate level whereas radical, product-oriented, and partially open innovation strategy is associated with a more exclusive innovation structure.

In 2021, the United States (U.S.) publicly traded firms repurchased nearly $850 billion of their own shares, setting an all-time record. Given the enormous scale of this resource allocation away from investment in innovation and growth and toward shareholders, it is reasonable to consider if these buybacks create opportunity costs. Stock buybacks increase earnings per share, even in the wake of no earnings growth, driving up share price and benefitting the top executives who make these capital allocation decisions by increasing the value of their stock options. Pundits disagree on the impact that high levels of buybacks have on the economy, some arguing that stock buybacks come at the expense of strategic investment in innovation while others point to diminishing returns to research and development (RnD) investment as the reason for decreases in innovative activity. This paper empirically tests whether share buybacks are suppressing corporate innovation in ways that control for widely observed declines in returns to R&D investment, and the endogenous relationship between stock buybacks and innovation. Statistical analysis provides strong evidence that share buybacks are suppressing corporate innovation. This has enormous ramifications to the long-term viability of U.S. industries and to social justice.

This study aims to understand how corporate innovation is influenced by industry peers. Using panel data of Chinese listed firms from 2004 to 2019, we construct two-way fixed effect models to examine the peer effects in corporate innovation and the role of analyst coverage. The findings indicate a positive relationship between corporate innovation and industry-peer innovation. Under competitive pressure within the industry, firms tend to make similar innovation decisions to maintain their competitive advantage. Additionally, analyst coverage exerts pressure on firms and enhances peer effects in innovation. Using net analyst coverage as a proxy variable, we mitigate endogeneity concerns and find significant results. Finally, heterogeneity analysis shows firm size, ownership and profitability significantly influence the industry peer effect on innovation. This study clarifies the association between analyst coverage and industry peer effects in corporate innovation, offering insights for promoting and implementing innovative strategies.

As the climate change risks’ effects on social development increase, how to deal with these challenges has become extremely urgent, and it is necessary for companies to adapt to the changing circumstances. This paper estimates the impact of climate policy uncertainty on corporate innovation using unbalanced panel data with 2,449 listed companies from 2009 to 2020. The findings show a significant positive correlation between climate policy uncertainty and corporate innovation investment. Specially, two possible mechanisms are explored. Government environmental regulations force companies to produce cleanly. Optimistic market expectations encourage firms to shift to a green development model. Further, the renewable energy industry and state-owned enterprises’ powers of innovation are more robust. Jointly, our findings offer the government a clear direction for policy making by identifying the effects of climate policy uncertainty on corporate innovation.