Politics and technology innovation : antecedent and moderating factors influencing technology orientation and technology innovation performance

Abstract

The political discourse in the United States has carried tremendous division over the last few years and throughout the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic. Corporate CEOs have not been immune to this political division and have often found themselves (openly) aligning with one side. Although CEOs have permanently been politically affiliated, recent years have brought this phenomenon into the limelight. So naturally, the question of how the CEO’s political characteristics influence an organization becomes an important research question to be examined. Prior research in management has examined CEO political affiliation and its influence on organizational-level outcomes such as business performance. However, as technology takes center stage in many organizations, the effects of CEO political characteristics on technology innovation and performance require examination. Still, they have not received research attention in prior literature. This study instilled clarity into this phenomenon by studying 256 human resources professionals and their perception of the CEO’s liberal tendencies. The results of this study empirically show significant effects of the CEO’s political orientation on the organization’s technology orientation with increased influence on technology innovation performance. A partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis was performed to find support for the various relationships in the hypothesis. This study’s findings provide new consideration for the company’s board of directors and human resources hiring managers to find CEOs that positively influence technology orientation and are more prone to delivering a higher level of technology innovation performance. Finally, this study provides much-needed guidance on the importance of the CIO reporting directly to the CEO to promote an organizational environment that is willing to change to accelerate technology innovation performance.