IT Investment and Innovation Performance of Industrial Enterprises: Empirical Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies

In this paper, a theoretical frame on how the IT investment influences the innovation performance of enterprise is set up, and the data of Chinese industrial listed companies is used to conduct an empirical test. The study shows that IT investment can improve the innovation performance of enterprises on the whole, but there is heterogeneity among different types of enterprises. Specifically, IT investment of low-innovation strategy-oriented enterprises has a stronger effect on innovation performance than high-innovation strategy-oriented enterprises; IT investment of large enterprises has a more significant effect on innovation performance; and IT investment of state-owned enterprises has a stronger effect on innovation performance than that of non-state-owned enterprises. These conclusions not only provide microscopic evidence for the promotion of innovation performance by IT investment of industrial enterprises, but also have important policy implications for the integration of informatization and industrialization and the construction of a digital China.