Origin matters: organisational imprinting and innovation of enterprises from restructured research institutes in China’s transition economies.

Based on imprinting theory, this study examines how organisational imprinting, i.e. imprinting with the research institute background, impacts innovation of enterprises from restructured research institutes in subsequent periods. Using a sample of Chinese listed companies during 2000–2020, this study uses firm random effects and industry / year fixed effects models to test the hypotheses. Our study finds that organisational imprinting positively influences corporate innovation. Furthermore, CEO’s ideological imprinting weakens the impact of organisational imprinting on corporate innovation. Finally, as the institutional development improves and equity checks and balances strengthen, the negative impact of CEO’s ideological imprinting on the relationship between organisational imprinting and corporate innovation will be weakened. This study contributes to the literature on the imprinting theory by predicting the impact of organisational imprinting on innovation using a consistent and integrative framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]