{"title":"Workforce sleep and corporate innovation","authors":"Gianni De Bruyn , Paul G. Freed","doi":"10.1016/j.respol.2025.105191","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates the relationship between workforce sleep and corporate innovative output. Using comprehensive data on average sleep durations and corporate patenting, we present robust evidence demonstrating that aggregate sleep deficits among employees, engineers, and scientists are associated with declines in corporate patent output. The results further suggest that the decreases in output are greater for novel, breakthrough patents. Reductions in workforce sleep are also associated with declines in total factor productivity at high research-oriented firms. For identification, we apply a spatial regression discontinuity design and a novel natural experiment which induce exogenous changes in workforce sleep durations. Our findings are consistent with the notion that sleep has important value for efficiency and creativity in a firm's innovative process. This work highlights the importance of flexible work policies that allow employees to adjust their schedule to fit their own natural sleep cycle.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48466,"journal":{"name":"Research Policy","volume":"54 3","pages":"Article 105191"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5000,"publicationDate":"2025-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Research Policy","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733325000204","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"MANAGEMENT","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This study investigates the relationship between workforce sleep and corporate innovative output. Using comprehensive data on average sleep durations and corporate patenting, we present robust evidence demonstrating that aggregate sleep deficits among employees, engineers, and scientists are associated with declines in corporate patent output. The results further suggest that the decreases in output are greater for novel, breakthrough patents. Reductions in workforce sleep are also associated with declines in total factor productivity at high research-oriented firms. For identification, we apply a spatial regression discontinuity design and a novel natural experiment which induce exogenous changes in workforce sleep durations. Our findings are consistent with the notion that sleep has important value for efficiency and creativity in a firm's innovative process. This work highlights the importance of flexible work policies that allow employees to adjust their schedule to fit their own natural sleep cycle.
期刊介绍：
Research Policy (RP) articles explore the interaction between innovation, technology, or research, and economic, social, political, and organizational processes, both empirically and theoretically. All RP papers are expected to provide insights with implications for policy or management.
Research Policy (RP) is a multidisciplinary journal focused on analyzing, understanding, and effectively addressing the challenges posed by innovation, technology, R&D, and science. This includes activities related to knowledge creation, diffusion, acquisition, and exploitation in the form of new or improved products, processes, or services, across economic, policy, management, organizational, and environmental dimensions.
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