Can Senior Executives’ Overseas Experience Enhance Enterprise Innovation Attention? Empirical Evidence from China’s A-Share Listed Companies

Innovative attention is a key factor for enterprises to achieve sustainable development. How to leverage the role of executives’ overseas experience—an internal organizational characteristic—in the allocation of innovative attention has become an important issue. This study, based on empirical evidence from Chinas A-share listed companies, finds that executives’ overseas experience can significantly enhance their focus on corporate innovation. The analysis of moderating effects reveals that the innovation environment strengthens the positive impact of executives’ overseas experience on innovation attention, while financial constraints inhibit this enhancement. The heterogeneity test shows that in high-tech enterprises, competitive industries, and rapidly marketizing environments, the impact of executives’ overseas experience on corporate innovation attention is significant. In general enterprises, less competitive industries, and slower marketizing environments, this effect is not significant. The analysis of economic consequences indicates that the impact of executives’ overseas experience on their attention to corporate innovation can improve enterprises sustainable development capacity and innovation persistence. This study enriches the research on the impact of internal organizational characteristics on the allocation of attention in enterprises and provides empirical support for promoting the “talent power” strategy and achieving sustainable innovation development for enterprises. JEL: M.