How does TMT attention to innovation of Chinese firms influence firm innovation activities? A study on the moderating role of corporate governance

Drawing on upper echelon theory, this study examines how TMT attention to innovation (TMTAI) influences a firm's innovation activities in China. We predict that the impact of executive attention to innovation on firm innovation activities is moderated by the characteristics of corporate governance. We develop and test hypotheses derived from the prediction using 1747 firm-year observations collected from 394 Chinese manufacturing companies over 6 years between 2006 and 2011. The results show that TMTAI is positively associated with a firm's patent application, and that the positive relationship is stronger when a firm is a private enterprise, has a large board, or has few independent directors.