Abstract:
According to the Imprinting Theory, the overseas experience of senior executives will become a special “mark” for them to adapt to the complex business environment, and thus affect the financial investment of the enterprises they work for. This paper selected 2,800 A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2020 as research samples to explore the effect of senior executives’ overseas background on corporate financial investment, and studied the mediating effect of corporate financing constraints and the cross-level moderating effect of digital finance. The results show that the overseas background of senior executives has a significant restraining effect on long-term financial investment, and a significant promotion effect on short-term financial investment. Financing constraints play a mediating role in the influence of executives’ overseas background on corporate financial investment, that is, executives’ overseas background increases short-term financial investment and reduces long-term financial investment by alleviating corporate financing constraints. Digital finance positively moderates the effect of senior executives’ overseas background on corporate financing constraints across levels. Based on the above conclusions, this paper proposes that enterprises should pay attention to absorbing excellent talents with overseas experience, and optimize the personnel allocation structure of senior management team, thus to enhance the competitiveness of enterprises. Meanwhile, enterprises should make good use of the convenience provided by digital finance to raise funds, reduce their financing to costs, and create favorable conditions for the sustainable development of enterprises.