21/10/2011 How diversity in top management UTRECHT characteristics affects the innovation UNIVERSITY strategy of mobile phone producers MASTER THESIS Author: Remko Voorzaat Postal address: Zwaluw 14, 2411 ME Bodegraven E‐mail address:
[email protected] Supervisor: Drs. Irene Troy Second reader: Dr. Jan Faber Number of ECTS: 45 Science & Innovation Management Department of Innovations Studies, Utrecht University The Netherlands Science & Innovation Management Master Thesis Remko Voorzaat (3037509) Abstract As innovation is becoming more and more important for both scientists and firms alike, much research is being put into better understanding all aspects of how innovation comes about and why some innovation projects are successful while others are not. However now that several studies have been conducted into understanding why some firms are better in translating their innovation strategy into successful products, it is time to think about the step which comes before that: the process of the strategy definition. This research uses the upper‐echelon theory to underpin the importance of the top management and investigates how the innovation strategy of a firm is affected by diversity within its top management team. As indicated in earlier literature, this relationship is assumed to be indirect due to the presence of some mediating variables which are included in this research. The firms chosen to be studied in this research are Nokia, Motorola and LG which are mobile phone producers. Since this is such a highly innovative industry there is a great need for high‐ quality innovation strategies. The research method of qualitative content analysis is used to examine the diversity in top management characteristics for these firms in the period of 2002‐2010 and their influences on the included mediating variables and ultimately on the defined innovation strategies.