Top Management Team Education Experience Heterogeneity and Corporate Innovation: Evidence from China

Abstract This study examines the impact of top management team (TMT) education experience heterogeneity on corporate innovation. Using a dataset of Chinese listed companies during 2008–2017, we find robust evidence of a positive relationship between TMT education experience heterogeneity and corporate innovation. Our findings remain consistent across various robustness checks, including a firm fixed effects model, extended test windows of corporate innovation, controlling for potentially omitted variables, excluding firms in first‐tier cities, instrumental variable estimations and analysis of an exogenous shock. The positive effect is more pronounced for firms with higher managerial remuneration and those deemed more socially important. Further analysis reveals that enhanced risk‐taking and improved social relationships are the two channels through which TMT education experience heterogeneity promotes corporate innovation. Our study contributes new insights into the effects of TMT education experience heterogeneity.