R&D Catalyst: Can enterprises’ attention to digital technologies propel R&D propensity in Chinese enterprises

This study investigates how enterprises' attention to digital technologies affects their R&D propensity. It employs text analysis to perform sentiment analysis on the sentences related to R&D in corporate annual reports, and constructs an R&D propensity indicator using the Janis-Fadner coefficient. Grounded in endogenous growth theory, the study further develops a theoretical model of the impact of enterprises’ attention to digital technologies on R&D propensity. Empirically, it applies a multidimensional fixed-effects model and finds that enterprises’ attention to digital technologies significantly enhances R&D propensity. From an information asymmetry perspective, the results show that analyst attention positively moderates this effect, while corporate financing constraints have a negative moderating impact. The study provides new evidence on how digital technology attention boosts R&D propensity and positively influences long-term R&D strategy.