Does Customer Concentration Matter in Exploratory Innovation? The Moderating Effect of Board Interlocks and CEO Research Background

Cui, Fushang; Tang, Fangcheng; Dong, Caiting; Zhang, Yushu

doi:10.3390/su18010203

This is an early access version, the complete PDF, HTML, and XML versions will be available soon.

Open AccessArticle

Does Customer Concentration Matter in Exploratory Innovation? The Moderating Effect of Board Interlocks and CEO Research Background

¹

School of Economics and Management, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100044, China

²

School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, Beijing 100091, China

³

School of Business Administration, Chongqing Technology and Business University, Chongqing 400067, China

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Sustainability 2026, 18(1), 203; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18010203

Submission received: 14 November 2025 / Revised: 21 December 2025 / Accepted: 22 December 2025 / Published: 24 December 2025

(This article belongs to the Section Sustainable Management)

Download Review Reports Versions Notes

Abstract

Both managers and researchers closely examine the factors that motivate firms to explore new domains and acquire new knowledge in pursuit of greater innovation. Considering the role of demand-side factors in innovation, in this study, we investigate how customer concentration influences exploratory innovation based on Chinese listed firms from 2009 to 2019. As the characteristics of the top management team (TMT) may affect the influential mechanism, we further investigated the moderating effects of board interlocks and the CEO’s research background. Our results demonstrate that with the increase in customer concentration, the exploratory innovation level shows an inverted U-shaped trend. The board interlocks strengthen the positive effects of customer concentration on exploratory innovation, while a CEO’s research background mitigates the negative effects. Our findings offer key insights and serve as a benchmark for companies that aim to achieve innovation in their approach to managing customer relationships and organizing their top management teams.

Keywords: exploratory innovation; customer concentration; top management teams; board interlocks; CEO research background

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Cui, F.; Tang, F.; Dong, C.; Zhang, Y. Does Customer Concentration Matter in Exploratory Innovation? The Moderating Effect of Board Interlocks and CEO Research Background. Sustainability 2026, 18, 203. https://doi.org/10.3390/su18010203

AMA Style

Cui F, Tang F, Dong C, Zhang Y. Does Customer Concentration Matter in Exploratory Innovation? The Moderating Effect of Board Interlocks and CEO Research Background. Sustainability. 2026; 18(1):203. https://doi.org/10.3390/su18010203

Chicago/Turabian Style

Cui, Fushang, Fangcheng Tang, Caiting Dong, and Yushu Zhang. 2026. "Does Customer Concentration Matter in Exploratory Innovation? The Moderating Effect of Board Interlocks and CEO Research Background" Sustainability 18, no. 1: 203. https://doi.org/10.3390/su18010203

APA Style

Cui, F., Tang, F., Dong, C., & Zhang, Y. (2026). Does Customer Concentration Matter in Exploratory Innovation? The Moderating Effect of Board Interlocks and CEO Research Background. Sustainability, 18(1), 203. https://doi.org/10.3390/su18010203

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Menu

Does Customer Concentration Matter in Exploratory Innovation? The Moderating Effect of Board Interlocks and CEO Research Background

Abstract

Share and Cite

Article Metrics

Article Access Statistics

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI