Research Policy 2025

Health and creativity: Evidence from corporate innovation

Truc Do¹; Kelvin Jui Keng Tan¹; Yanhui Wu²

¹ The University of Queensland · ² Queensland University of Technology

Abstract

This study examines how workforce health affects corporate innovation output. At the inventor level, we show that healthier individual inventors, measured using facial recognition-based estimates of Body Mass Index, produce more valuable patents. At the firm level, we show that better workforce health is associated with improved innovation output, particularly in the presence of increased creative destruction and product market competition. Improved workforce health enhances corporate innovation primarily through efficiency gains. This study highlights the importance of workforce health as one of the key drivers of innovation and emphasizes the need for firms to prioritize employee health in their innovation strategies.

DOI

10.1016/j.respol.2025.105310

Sources

openalex

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APA 7 MLA 9 Chicago (author–date) Harvard Elsevier Harvard (JFE, JBF…) The Accounting Review Academy of Management American Marketing Association INFORMS (Management Science) Copy citation Copied ✓