CEO信息技术背景对企业数字化创新的影响机制研究

王象路¹张文泉²耿新³

（1. 同济大学经济与管理学院；2. 中国海洋大学国际事务与公共管理学院；3. 山东财经大学工商管理学院）

　　内容提要：在数字经济时代，如何推进数字化创新成为理论界与实践界亟需研究的重要议题，而首席执行官（CEO）信息技术背景为解释企业数字化创新的驱动因素提供了新的视角。本文基于数字化创新突破条件，利用2010—2021年沪深A股上市公司数据，探讨CEO信息技术背景对企业数字化创新的影响效应及其作用机制。研究结果显示：CEO信息技术背景能够显著推进企业数字化创新；CEO信息技术背景将通过数字意义建构、数字资源配置来促进企业数字化创新；CEO信息技术背景对数字化创新的促进作用在CEO权力较高、高管团队断裂带较强以及环境动态性较高的条件下更为显著。本文研究结论揭示了CEO信息技术背景对企业数字化创新的影响及其作用机制，也对实践中企业推进数字化创新具有一定的启示。

　　

　　关键词：CEO；信息技术；大数据；数字化创新；数字意义建构；数字资源配置

　　

　　作者简介：王象路，同济大学经济与管理学院博士研究生，上海，200092；张文泉，中国海洋大学国际事务与公共管理学院硕士研究生，青岛，266101；耿新，山东财经大学工商管理学院教授，济南，250014。

　　基金项目：国家自然科学基金面上项目“学习-认知视角下双元领导行为的多层效应与转换过程研究”(71772138）；国家自然科学基金面上项目“企业数智化变革中的悖论协同能力建构与效应研究”（72372118）；山东省社会科学规划研究项目“山东省区域人才活力评价与提升对策研究”（21CJJJ12）

　　引用格式：王象路,张文泉,耿新.CEO信息技术背景对企业数字化创新的影响机制研究[J].经济与管理研究,2023,44(10):129-144.DOI:10.13502/j.cnki.issn1000-7636.2023.10.008.

　　

　　

Impact Mechanism of CEOs’ IT Background on Corporate Digital Innovation

WANG Xianglu¹, ZHANG Wenquan², GENG Xin³

(1. Tongji University, Shanghai 200092;

2. Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266101;

3. Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan 250014)

　　

　　Abstract: In the digital economy era, the continuous embedding of digital technology reshapes the physical form of products and the logic of enterprise value creation, and digital innovation empowers enterprises to establish competitive advantage. How to effectively promote digital innovation becomes a crucial concern in both theoretical and practical fields. On this basis, CEOs’ information technology (IT) background provides a new perspective to explain the driving factors of corporate digital innovation.

　　Using A-share listed enterprises in China from 2010 to 2021 as the research sample, this paper examines the effect and the mechanism of CEOs’ IT background on corporate digital innovation. The findings reveal that CEOs’ IT background significantly promotes corporate digital innovation. The mechanism test shows that the promotion effect is achieved through digital sensemaking and digital resource allocation. The extended analysis indicates that the promotion effect is more significant under the conditions of high CEO power, strong top management team faultlines, and high environmental dynamism.

　　The practical significance of this paper is to provide inspiration for enterprises to promote digital innovation from the perspective of CEOs’ IT background. First, enterprises interested in promoting digital innovation should pay attention to the human factor, and it is necessary to consider the IT background as one of the decisive factors when selecting and hiring CEOs and other executives. Second, enterprises should pay attention to the construction of digital sensemaking for the organization, as well as the accumulation and stockpiling of digital resources in daily operations. Third, enterprises with highly changing external environments can give greater decision-making autonomy to CEOs with IT backgrounds, and fully explore the heterogeneous knowledge information in subsidiaries of the executive team to better realize digital innovation.

　　The potential contributions are as follows. First, taking CEOs’ IT background as an entry point, this paper argues and tests the impact of CEOs’ IT background on corporate digital innovation, enriching the pre-influence factors of digital innovation at the individual level. Second, this paper enriches the research on the economic consequences of CEOs’ IT background in the digital context and has incremental contributions to promoting the involvement of the upper echelons theory and the imprinting theory in the digital context. Finally, based on the breakthrough conditions of digital innovation, this paper further introduces digital sensemaking and digital resource allocation as mediating variables, and more comprehensively examines the mechanism of CEOs’ IT background on corporate digital innovation, which helps to further expand the theoretical boundary of research in the field of digital innovation.

　　

　　Keywords: CEO; information technology; big data; digital innovation; digital sensemaking; digital resource allocation