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New Blood As An Elixir Of Youth: Effects Of Human Capital Tenure On The Explorative Capability Of Aging Firms, F. Ted Tschang, Gokhan Ertug

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The relationship between firm age and innovation has been an enduring topic of interest. We contribute to this research by studying how the effect of firm age on the quality of explorative and exploitative innovations is affected by the firm-specific and industry tenure of the talent resources (employees) that the firm utilizes. We start with the baseline predictions that firm age is related to the development of better exploitative innovations and worse explorative innovations. However, the tenure of employees intervenes in these relationships, by way of bringing in new knowledge, mental models, and beliefs. We predict that longer firm-specific and …