TY - UNPD A1 - Ernst, Holger A1 - Lechler, Thomas T1 - The emergence of executive champions and their impact on innovation performance N2 - Highly recognized case studies and the intuitive notion that a heroic champion is required to help innovations overcome the indifference or even resistance that they face in many organizations explain that there has been a positive bias among academics and managers toward the role of champions in innovation processes. A look into the previous empirical literature on champions reveals, however, that a rigorous empirical investigation into organizational factors causing the emergence of executive champions and their impact on innovation performance is lacking. In addition, previous empirical research on champions is plagued with methodological problems such as measurement issues and single informant bias. This study uses multiple informant data from 258 respondents from 43 firms to examine various hypotheses. The findings reveal that executive champions are likely to emerge in organizational cultures that are conducive to innovation and they are less likely to emerge in organizational cultures that are unfavorable for innovation. We further find a non-linear, inverted u-shaped relationship between the level of executive championing activity and innovation performance. We find, in contrast with the commonly held belief, that executive champions have a strong negative impact on innovation performance particularly in cultures that make it difficult to innovate. Among the tested moderators, only the implementation of incentives for executive champions based on innovation performance offsets the negative impact of these champions on innovation performance. The findings lead us to substantially rethink the commonly believed role champions play in innovation processes. T3 - WHU-Forschungspapier - 094 KW - Produktinnovation KW - Product innovation KW - Innovationswettbewerb KW - Innovation competition KW - Innovationsbereitschaft KW - Readyness to innovate KW - Wettbewerbsvorteil KW - Competitive advantage Y1 - 2018 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-whu/frontdoor/index/index/docId/613 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hbz:992-opus4-6133 PB - Wissenschaftliche Hochschule für Unternehmensführung (WHU) Otto-Beisheim-Hochschule CY - Vallendar ER -