Great success for Miriam Bird, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise at the TUM School of Management on the Campus Heilbronn, and her doctoral student Sidney Hribersek: The two researchers have been awarded the prestigious “FGF Norbert Szyperski Technology and Innovation Management Award 2024” for their innovative research article “Uncovering the Influence of CEO Curiosity on Eco-Innovations: Insights from German SMEs”.
In their award-winning article, which Bird and Hribersek presented at the G-Forum in Ingolstadt at the end of September, they discuss the role of CEO curiosity in implementing eco-innovations in German Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs).
One key finding: CEO curiosity is an important prerequisite for introducing eco-innovations.
Based on the Upper Echelons Theory, according to which the characteristics and decisions of executives significantly influence corporate success, the authors conducted a large-scale survey among CEOs of German SMEs. The results show that the curiosity of CEOs is a decisive factor in introducing eco-innovations to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The study thus offers valuable practical insights for top management teams when selecting CEOs.
