Abstract: This paper examines for the first time the governance functions of top scientists such as academicians and their candidates as independent directors and their impact on corporate innovationThe research finds:(1)the academician（candidates） independent director is significantly positively related to corporate innovationThe conclusion is still robust after we controll the individual effect,the Propensity Score Matching(PSM)and the Heckman two stage method;(2)the longer the tenure of academician（candidates） independent director,the more the number of parttime companies,the better the promotion of the corporate innovation,the female scientists can better promote the corporate innovation,but the scientists with the experience of the returnees does not play a more effective role;(3)The results of impact channel test show that the more conservative the strategic style and the more serious the shortsightedness of management,the greater the promotion effect of employing academicians(candidates)to corporate innovationIt shows that academicians(candidates)can effectively alleviate the restrictive effect of conservative strategy and management shortsightedness on corporate innovationAnd at the same time,the independent directors of academicians(candidates)play the role of “bridge scientist”,increasing the possibility of establishing academicians'workstations in the next two years,thus promoting the cooperation between industry and university;(4)The crossimpact analysis with other corporate governance variables shows that academicians and their candidates can play a more effective role in nonstateowned enterprises,companies with centralized ownership structure,high proportion of institutional investors and companies without executives sharesThis paper is of special significance to give full play to the role of top scientists and promote the corporate innovation and the construction of national innovation system

Key words: academician , scientists , independent directors , corporate innovation

摘要： 本文首次考察了两院院士及其候选人担任独立董事发挥的治理职能和对企业创新的影响。研究发现：（1）院士（候选人）独立董事与企业创新显著正相关，控制企业个体效应、倾向得分匹配法（PSM）和Heckman两阶段法等一系列稳健性检验后该结论依然成立。（2）院士（候选人）独董的任期越长、兼职公司数量越多，对企业创新的促进作用越好，女性院士（候选人）独董可以更好地促进企业创新，但具有海归经历的院士（候选人）并没有更有效地发挥作用。（3）影响渠道检验结果表明，一方面，战略风格越保守、管理层短视程度越严重的公司聘请院士（候选人）独董对企业创新的促进作用越大，表明院士（候选人）独董可以通过战略咨询有效缓解保守战略和管理层短视对企业创新的制约作用；另一方面，院士（候选人）独董发挥了“桥梁科学家”作用，增加了企业未来两年建立院士工作站的可能性，从而促进了企业的产学研合作和技术创新。（4）与其他公司治理变量的交叉影响分析发现，院士及其候选人在非国有企业、股权结构集中、机构投资者持股比例高和高管不持股的公司中更能发挥促进创新的作用。本文对于充分发挥顶尖科学家作用以及推动企业创新与国家创新体系的构建具有参考价值。

关键词: 院士 , 科学家 , 独立董事 , 企业创新