Buffering the negative impacts of age diversity on company performance and innovation: The roles of knowledge transfer and environmental uncertainty

• Main Author: XU, Tiecheng
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2023
• Subjects: Age diversity; Company performance; Company innovation; Knowledge transfer between older and younger employees; Environmental uncertainty; Accounting; Technology and Innovation
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/etd_coll/589; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/etd_coll/article/1587/viewcontent/PhD_Dissertation_DBA2019_XU_Tiecheng.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

The VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) era has resulted in significant uncertainty in the global economy, while deglobalization in international politics and economics, and the interweaving of old and new contradictions, have presented substantial challenges to businesses. On the other hand, aging is a crucial issue that China and the world at large are currently facing. It is essential to study the relationship between employee age structure and enterprise performance. Different researchers have provided empirical analyses of the effects of age diversity on organizational performance and innovation, but the conclusions are not consistent. According to the research in this paper, age diversity has a negative impact on enterprise performance, which means the richer the diversity of age, the hindering knowledge transfer between young and older workers, ultimately weakening the company's overall performance. However, this negative effect can be mitigated in the face of an increasingly complex and competitive market environment that promotes more knowledge transfer between elder and younger employees. The paper analyzes the relationship between employee age diversity in enterprises and their business performance and innovation. It reveals the critical mediating role played by knowledge transfer between older and younger employees within organizations in the impact of age diversity on organizational performance and innovation processes. Furthermore, this study examines the moderating effect of environmental uncertainty on the impact of age diversity of employee to the company performance and innovation. This paper enriches the study of the effects of employee age diversity and provides a critical reference for organizations to better help employees cope with the challenges brought by the age structure in a new situation filled with uncertainty.