Foreign executives, digital transformation, and innovation performance: Evidence from Chinese-listed firms

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of foreign executives on firms’ innovation performance and the mediation role of digital transformation in Chinese-listed firms from 2011 to 2021. Our findings indicate that the presence of foreign executives in top management teams promotes firms’ innovation performance by enhancing digital transformation. Further analyses show that foreign executives contribute significantly to improving firms’ radical innovation performance rather than incremental innovation performance. We also examine the moderating effect of negative performance feedback and financing constraints between foreign executives and innovation performance, finding that foreign executives can promote innovation performance particularly in firms with negative performance feedback and weak financing constraints.