CEO's IT background, attention configuration and digital innovation

The advent of the Information Technology Revolution has created an imperative for corporate leadership to effectively facilitate digital transformation initiatives, however, the extant literature remains limited in empirically examining the precise mechanisms through which CEOs' technological competencies influence organisational innovation outcomes. To address this gap, we investigate whether and how Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) with IT backgrounds (CITs) influence firms' digital innovation. Using manually collected data from Chinese A-share listed companies (2007-2020), we find that CITs allocate significantly more attention to digital initiatives, resulting in measurable innovation gains. This effect is most pronounced in high-tech firms, low-financing-constraint firms, and competitive industries. Comparative analysis further reveals CITs' unique impact surpasses that of Chief Information Officers (CIOs). Our study advances the attention-based view (ABV) by demonstrating how leader-specific competencies translate into strategic focus, while offering practical insights for executive selection in digital transformation process.