Marketers on board: The influence of marketing-experienced board members (MEBMs) on firm innovativeness inputs and the moderating roles of CEO job characteristics

Abstract

Although fostering innovativeness has long been one of the most important concerns for marketing theory and practice, CEOs continue to identify the lack of an innovation culture as one of the main obstacles they must overcome. Corporate culture permeates from the top of the corporate hierarchy. Therefore, the role of the corporate board can be critical for nurturing an innovation culture and thus stimulating innovativeness inputs. As marketing training and orientation emphasize innovation to create customer value and drive growth, marketing-experienced board members (MEBMs) can be particularly instrumental in fostering innovativeness inputs through their direction and counseling. Therefore, in this paper, we investigate whether the marketing expertise and information brought by MEBMs contribute to firm innovativeness inputs. Furthermore, based on the governance literature, we identify three specific CEO job characteristics that influence a CEO’s information processing capacity and ability to implement strategies based on that information, thus enhancing MEBMs’ effectiveness in fostering innovativeness. Analysis of a large representative dataset reveals that marketing expertise brought by MEBMs increases firm innovativeness inputs and that CEO risk-taking incentives, insider CEO, and CEO duality enhance MEBMs’ effectiveness in fostering innovativeness inputs. The results highlight the value of having marketers on the corporate board and the importance of their counsel to CEOs.