Abstract:    During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China aims to become a leading innovation-driven country. As one of the main driving forces behind the country′s technological innovation, science and technology (S&T) entrepreneurs and their related innovation activities have always been a hot topic. In the existing literature, scholars have conducted extensive research on the relationship between founders and firm innovation performance. However, there is a scarcity of literature focusing on the impact of different founder identities on innovation performance, as well as a lack of in-depth analysis and examination of their underlying mechanisms. Currently, the literature exploring the influence of founders on organizational behavior from an identity perspective primarily emphasizes the impact of explicit personal characteristics and behaviors of entrepreneurial managers on firm innovation performance, while neglecting the fact that founder identity heterogeneity also affects firm decision-making.Therefore, this study aims to address the gap by discussing whether different founder identities influence their decisions regarding innovation investment, as well as the underlying mechanisms through which founder identity heterogeneity affects firm innovation performance.This study used the text analysis method to reconstruct the identity types of founders based on the data from Chinese S&T board-listed companies from 2019 to 2021, and empirically analyzed the impact and mechanisms of founder identity heterogeneity on the innovation performance in S&T enterprises. It was found that compared to non-academic founders, companies with academic founders exhibit superior innovation performance. Specifically, the innovation performance of S&T enterprises is in the order of academic founders > technical founders > business founders. Corporate innovation investment partially mediates the relationship between academic founder identity and innovation performance. Founder duality and VC/PE support strengthen the positive relationship between academic founders and innovation investment. Additionally, founder overseas background and founder duality positively moderates the impact of firm′s innovation investment and innovation performance. This paper has the following contributions. Firstly, it expanded the research perspective on firm innovation performance. The paper validated the differential performance of innovation based on distinct founder identities and recognized the founder′s academic background in the development of firm innovation. Secondly, it enriched the literature on entrepreneur identity. Starting from identity theory, the paper categorized founder identity into three types: academic, technical, and business, and explained the relationship between founder identity heterogeneity and firm innovation performance. Thirdly, it clarified the mediating effect of innovation investment in the relationship between academic founder and innovation performance, and opened up the black box of how founder identity influences innovation performance. These findings will offer valuable insights for S&T founders aiming to accelerate enterprise innovation and mitigate governance biases arising from the founder′s personality traits. Specifically, companies should meticulously select individuals with academic backgrounds or relevant professional knowledge, aligning their skills with the required positions within the top management team. This optimization of the executive team structure will contribute to effective corporate management and decision-making in innovation. Furthermore, founders should prioritize and reinforce their commitment to R&D, create an atmosphere conducive to innovation, and increase investment in original technology exploration. Academic founders should actively cultivate their identification with the entrepreneurial role, whereas business founders and technical founders should transcend short-sightedness by focusing on long-term outcomes. In terms of external considerations, introducing appropriate venture capital and private equity can give financial certainty for corporate growth. Leveraging social capital to promote S&T innovation allows companies to fully realize social capital′s supportive function, hence enhancing the company′s innovation performance.

Key words:  founder, founder identity, science and technology enterprise, innovation performance, text analysis