Top Management Team Attention and Firm Digital Innovation:Empirical Evidence from Chinese A-share Listed Companies
In the era of digital economy,digital innovation is an important engine for enterprises to cultivate new ki-netic energy for development,and it is of great significance for promoting the deep integration of the"two industrializa-tions"and the high-quality development of traditional industries.However,as far as the real situation is concerned,most enterprises in China are still in the exploratory stage for the application of digital technology,and the ambiguity of bound-aries,heterogeneity of subjects,and complexity of the process of digital innovation,coupled with the inherent high-risk and long return on investment cycle of traditional innovation,determine the difficulty of its implementation.Therefore,digital innovation requires great attention of the top management team(TMT).As the makers and implementers of busi-ness decisions,the TMT attention and TMT's cognitive attitude towards digital innovation are the key factors affecting the effectiveness of corporate digital innovation.Through the combing of related literature,it is found that corporate digital innovation is influenced by the TMT's environmental cognition,resource cognition and other psychological cognitive fac-tors,which are based on the specific cognitive characteristics derived from the TMT attention.Few studies have directly focused on the influence of the psychological cognitive factor of TMT attention on digital innovation.As a scarce resource of enterprises,TMT attention plays a key role in the process of major corporate decision making and implementation.Therefore,implementing and driving digital innovation cannot be achieved without the support of TMT attention.In view of this,this research takes all the listed companies of Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares in China from 2015 to 2020 as research samples.Based on the attention-based view,this research focuses on exploring how TMT attention affects corporate digital innovation,and reveals the influence mechanism of the TMT's cognition on corporate digital in-novation from a micro perspective.At the same time,combined with the attention situation principle,this study also examines the moderating role of internal and external resources(organizational slack,government subsidies)in the process of transforming TMT attention into digital innovation.The findings are as follows:Firstly,the TMT attention significantly and positively affects corporate digital innovation and exhibits industry heterogeneity.With the TMT attention in manufac-turing firms leading to a higher level of digital innovation compared to non-manufacturing firms.Secondly,abundant orga-nizational slack can reduce the concerns of resource constraints and performance pressure when the TMT makes digital in-novation decisions,which is conducive to the TMT to make digital innovation decisions based on its focus,and provides a resource guarantee for corporate digital innovation.Thirdly,the more government subsidies an enterprise receives,the higher the enthusiasm of TMT concerned with digital innovation issues to implement digital innovation within the enter-prise.Government subsidies have"incentive"and"certification"effects on corporate digital innovation.The label of gov-ernment certification is conducive to enterprises to expand external financing channels and obtain more external financ-ing.The support of external funding can easily eliminate the fear of TMT,so that TMT will switch their attention to digi-tal innovation.Based on the research findings,the following insights can be drawn:firstly,the TMT should prioritize digital innova-tion matters.The TMT should not only update their knowledge of digital innovation in a timely manner,but also allocate adequate attention at each stage of digital innovation implementation and adjust decisions in a timely manner.Secondly,enterprises should take steps to put more emphasis on the TMT attention.Enterprises should support decisions made by the TMT that promote the development of enterprises,ensuring that the TMT attention remains concentrated and avoiding the problem of"talking without practice"of the TMT.Thirdly,enterprises should allocate their internal and external re-sources rationally.More specifically,enterprises should strengthen their investment in disposable resources for digital inno-vation after integrating three categories of redundant resources.Simultaneously,enterprises should enhance the utilization of government subsidies and actively seek external financing by leveraging the"certification"bestowed by such subsidies to support digital innovation.Fourthly,from a governmental perspective,it is essential for the government to formulate and enhance incentive policies for digital innovation,thereby promoting enterprises to engage in it.In addition,the govern-ment should intensify its supervision over the utilization of government subsidies by enterprises.Finally,the government should establish closer connections with the TMT and regularly promote digital innovation to the TMT through entrepre-neur forums,industry conferences and other means to attract the attention of the TMT.
digital innovationtop management team attentionorganizational slackgovernment subsidiesatten-tion-based view
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