{"id":{"repo_id":"unsw","oai_identifier":"oai:unsworks.library.unsw.edu.au:1959.4/53540"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/unsw/oai:unsworks.library.unsw.edu.au:1959.4/53540","repository":{"repo_id":"unsw","name":"University of New South Wales","base_url":"https://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/oai/provider"},"display":{"title":"Innovation in founder-run firms: evidence from S&P 500","abstract":"One important element of a firm’s organizational environment that may influence innovation is whether the CEO of the firm is its founder. Popular perception is that the inherent venturous spirit of the founders creates an environment that fosters innovation. This study investigates whether founder-CEOs are more innovative than nonfounder CEOs. Using a sample of S&P 500 firms from 1995-2005 and the NBER patent database for measuring innovation output, the study’s baseline results suggest that founder-CEOs are actually associated with fewer patents (quantity of innovation) and fewer citations (quality of innovations), a finding that is contrary to popular perception. However, to reveal the true picture of the innovativeness of founders, evaluating the effect of innovation output on overall firm valuation is necessary. Thus, the study considers the effect of innovation output on firm valuation and suggests that founder-CEOs add more value by innovation. The market greets the innovation output of founder-run firms more favorably than the innovation output of non-founder-run firms. This value addition holds even after controlling for strategic investments such as R&D. This finding helps to identify a probable channel -innovation that bridges, at least partially, the gap in the literature that shows that there is a ‘founder-premium’.","abstract_html":"One important element of a firm’s organizational environment that may influence innovation is whether the CEO of the firm is its founder. Popular perception is that the inherent venturous spirit of the founders creates an environment that fosters innovation. This study investigates whether founder-CEOs are more innovative than nonfounder CEOs. Using a sample of S&P 500 firms from 1995-2005 and the NBER patent database for measuring innovation output, the study’s baseline results suggest that founder-CEOs are actually associated with fewer patents (quantity of innovation) and fewer citations (quality of innovations), a finding that is contrary to popular perception. However, to reveal the true picture of the innovativeness of founders, evaluating the effect of innovation output on overall firm valuation is necessary. Thus, the study considers the effect of innovation output on firm valuation and suggests that founder-CEOs add more value by innovation. The market greets the innovation output of founder-run firms more favorably than the innovation output of non-founder-run firms. This value addition holds even after controlling for strategic investments such as R&D. This finding helps to identify a probable channel -innovation that bridges, at least partially, the gap in the literature that shows that there is a ‘founder-premium’.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Islam, Md Emdadul"],"institution":"UNSW, Sydney","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2014,"date_issued":"2014","date_published":"2014","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:32:00Z","subjects":["Patent and Citation","Founder-CEOs","Innovation","Tobin's Q"],"languages":["EN"],"rights":["open access","CC BY-NC-ND 3.0","free_to_read"],"rights_urls":["https://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2","https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/"],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/16854"],"render_values":[{"text":"https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/16854","href":"https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/16854","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/53540","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Islam, Md Emdadul"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2014"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["UNSW, Sydney"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["master thesis","http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_bdcc"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Patent and Citation","Founder-CEOs","Innovation","Tobin's Q"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["EN"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["open access","https://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2","CC BY-NC-ND 3.0","https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/","free_to_read"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/53540","https://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/bitstreams/47c69afe-5556-4135-af5f-9d23453590c7/download","https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/16854"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["One important element of a firm’s organizational environment that may influence innovation is whether the CEO of the firm is its founder. Popular perception is that the inherent venturous spirit of the founders creates an environment that fosters innovation. This study investigates whether founder-CEOs are more innovative than nonfounder CEOs. Using a sample of S&P 500 firms from 1995-2005 and the NBER patent database for measuring innovation output, the study’s baseline results suggest that founder-CEOs are actually associated with fewer patents (quantity of innovation) and fewer citations (quality of innovations), a finding that is contrary to popular perception. However, to reveal the true picture of the innovativeness of founders, evaluating the effect of innovation output on overall firm valuation is necessary. Thus, the study considers the effect of innovation output on firm valuation and suggests that founder-CEOs add more value by innovation. The market greets the innovation output of founder-run firms more favorably than the innovation output of non-founder-run firms. This value addition holds even after controlling for strategic investments such as R&D. This finding helps to identify a probable channel -innovation that bridges, at least partially, the gap in the literature that shows that there is a ‘founder-premium’."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Innovation in founder-run firms: evidence from S&P 500"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:creator":["Islam, Md Emdadul"],"dc:date":["2014"],"dc:description":["One important element of a firm’s organizational environment that may influence innovation is whether the CEO of the firm is its founder. Popular perception is that the inherent venturous spirit of the founders creates an environment that fosters innovation. This study investigates whether founder-CEOs are more innovative than nonfounder CEOs. Using a sample of S&P 500 firms from 1995-2005 and the NBER patent database for measuring innovation output, the study’s baseline results suggest that founder-CEOs are actually associated with fewer patents (quantity of innovation) and fewer citations (quality of innovations), a finding that is contrary to popular perception. However, to reveal the true picture of the innovativeness of founders, evaluating the effect of innovation output on overall firm valuation is necessary. Thus, the study considers the effect of innovation output on firm valuation and suggests that founder-CEOs add more value by innovation. The market greets the innovation output of founder-run firms more favorably than the innovation output of non-founder-run firms. This value addition holds even after controlling for strategic investments such as R&D. This finding helps to identify a probable channel -innovation that bridges, at least partially, the gap in the literature that shows that there is a ‘founder-premium’."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/53540","https://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/bitstreams/47c69afe-5556-4135-af5f-9d23453590c7/download","https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/16854"],"dc:language":["EN"],"dc:publisher":["UNSW, Sydney"],"dc:rights":["open access","https://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2","CC BY-NC-ND 3.0","https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/","free_to_read"],"dc:subject":["Patent and Citation","Founder-CEOs","Innovation","Tobin's Q"],"dc:title":["Innovation in founder-run firms: evidence from S&P 500"],"dc:type":["master thesis","http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_bdcc"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:32:00Z"}