The Role of the Manager's Education in Firm Growth: An Empirical Analysis in the Taiwanese Manufacturing Sector

This paper investigated manner in which the manager's education affects the management of the firm. The manager's education functions as a necessary background when he/she is required to understand high technologies and international business information. We adopt variables that are representative of the constituents of education such as the fields of specialization, overseas education, and the choice of overseas destination for education in order to determine the specific role of education. Moreover, we analyzed the effect of education within high-tech and export-oriented industries. An analysis of firms in the start-up period and a comparison in terms of firm size were also conducted. In addition, we analyzed whether managers' human network contributes to firm growth. We found that education serves to provide the necessary background and that scientific knowledge and foreign languages play substantial roles. It was also found that human network contributes to management.