IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0320844.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Executives’ IT background and corporate digital technology innovation: Evidence from Chinese microenterprises

Author

Listed:
  • Shuang Cao
  • Yingjue Wu

Abstract

This study examines how executives’ IT backgrounds affect corporate digital technology innovation, using panel data from listed companies between 2011 and 2021. Findings indicate that executives’ IT backgrounds significantly enhance corporate digital technology innovation, particularly in digital technology invention patents, where the effect is especially pronounced, and the results are robust. Mechanistic analysis suggests managerial myopia and executives’ attention to digital technology are key factors that allow executives’ IT backgrounds to promote corporate digital technology innovation. Further analysis shows executives’ IT backgrounds have a greater promotional effect on digital technology innovation in state-owned enterprises, non-IT sectors, firms with influential executives, and organizations with long-serving executives. Economic analysis reveals that executives’ IT backgrounds can improve corporate financial performance by enhancing digital technology innovation. This paper highlights the importance of executive IT human capital and provides insights into government and corporate talent recruitment policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Shuang Cao & Yingjue Wu, 2025. "Executives’ IT background and corporate digital technology innovation: Evidence from Chinese microenterprises," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 20(4), pages 1-20, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0320844
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0320844
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0320844
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0320844&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0320844?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lu, Juan & Li, He, 2024. "Can digital technology innovation promote total factor energy efficiency? Firm-level evidence from China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    2. Yang, Senmiao & Wang, Jianda & Dong, Kangyin & Jiang, Qingzhe, 2023. "A path towards China's energy justice: How does digital technology innovation bring about a just revolution?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PA).
    3. Yuan, Sai & Zhou, Ran & Li, Mengna & Lv, Chengchao, 2023. "Investigating the influence of digital technology application on employee compensation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xu, Ru-Yu & Wang, Ke-Liang & Miao, Zhuang, 2024. "The impact of digital technology innovation on green total-factor energy efficiency in China: Does economic development matter?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    2. Li, Shan & Xing, Kai & Meng, Jixian & Yang, Xiaoguang, 2025. "How does the innovation of digital and green technology integration promote corporate environmental performance," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    3. Zheng, ShiYong & Ding, MengLing & Li, Qing & Sohail, Sidra & Ullah, Sana, 2025. "How does environmental policy stringency affect clean energy justice? The role of digital infrastructure," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 318(C).
    4. Shenhua Liu & Deheng Xiao, 2024. "Can Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zone Promote Low-Carbon Urban Development? Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(1), pages 1-15, December.
    5. Huang, Zhilin & Li, Xiang & Chen, Jialing & Zhang, Dingfeng, 2024. "Does the Three-Year Action Plan for Winning the Blue Sky Defense Battle implementation enabling the high-quality development of regional energy? A quasi-natural experiment from China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 312(C).
    6. Zhang, Yuting & Chin, Tachia & Al-Wazer, Ragwa, 2025. "Good neighbors but bad employers? How corporate digital transformation affects incongruence between external and internal corporate social responsibility," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    7. Jie Zhu & Zhichao Wang & Zhi Xu & Ye Xu & ChangQi Tao, 2025. "Impact of digital technology innovation on entrepreneurial activity," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 1-21, December.
    8. He, Yu & Zhang, Xingyan & Zhang, Yulan, 2025. "Can new energy policy promote corporate total factor energy efficiency? Evidence from China's new energy demonstration city pilot policy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 318(C).
    9. Lu, Juan & Li, He, 2024. "Can digital technology innovation promote total factor energy efficiency? Firm-level evidence from China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    10. Tingting Sun & Muhammad Asraf bin Abdullah, 2025. "Impact of Industrial Agglomeration on the Upgrading of China’s Automobile Industry: The Threshold Effect of Human Capital and Moderating Effect of Government," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-25, March.
    11. Yang, Senmiao & Dong, Kangyin & Wang, Jianda & Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad, 2024. "Blessings or curses? Exploring the impact of digital technology innovation on natural resource utilization efficiency in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    12. Yang, Bo & Cui, Ya, 2025. "Can the energy consumption rights trading system enhance energy resilience?–A synergistic perspective of green finance and financial technology," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 322(C).
    13. Shi, Yarong & Yang, Bo, 2025. "China's energy system building toward an era of resilience: How green fintech can empower?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    14. Zhang, Yixiang & Liu, Meiling & Fu, Bowen, 2024. "Can digital technology application promote energy saving and emission reduction practices in enterprise? An empirical study based on the awareness-motivation-capability perspective," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 286(C).
    15. Xinxing Liu & Xinheng Liu & Lei Li & Rong Xu & Qi Ban & Rui Xu, 2024. "Has Trade Liberalization Promoted Energy Efficiency in Enterprises?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-21, November.
    16. Yang, Bai & Huang, Jingfeng & Chen, Yinzhong, 2025. "The relationship between ESG ratings and digital technological innovation in manufacturing: Insights via dual machine learning models," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    17. Si Mohammed, Kamel & Abddel-Jalil Sallam, Osama Azmi & Abdelkader, Salim Bourchid & Radulescu, Magdalena, 2024. "Dynamic effects of digital governance and government interventions on natural resources management: Fresh findings from Chinese provinces," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    18. Wang, Jianda & Lyu, Weijian & Chen, Xi & Yang, Senmiao & Dong, Xiucheng, 2024. "Navigating total-factor carbon emission efficiency in the digital era: A case study from industry structure, environmental regulations, and trade spillover," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 260-277.
    19. Peng, Jia-Hui & Wang, Ke-Liang & Cheng, Yun-He & Miao, Zhuang, 2024. "How does digital inclusive finance affect energy justice? Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 67(PA).
    20. Jia, Shanghui & Chen, Xinhui & Jin, Jiayu, 2024. "Digital disruption and energy efficiency: The impact of regional digitalization on China's industrial sector," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 300(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0320844. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.