Exporting and innovation in a digital age: an attention-based perspective

How does exporting drive innovation? Existing studies provide limited insights into this question, particularly from the perspective of managerial cognition within firms. This paper revisits the three core premises of the attention-based view proposed by Ocasio (1997) to explore the mechanisms by which export activities influence innovation. Drawing on an attention-allocation perspective, we reveal that export intensity exhibits an inverted U-shaped effect on innovation performance. High product concentration amplifies this curvilinear relationship by focusing managerial attention on the main product. Conversely, a decentralised organisational structure, characterised by multiple operating units, mitigates or reverses the inverted U-shaped effect. In the context of digital transformation, the relationship between export intensity and innovation performance becomes more pronounced.