Executive digitalization background and enterprise earnings quality: evidence from Chinese listed companies

Using a sample of 34,262 firm-year observations of Chinese A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2007 to 2022, this paper investigates the impact of executive digital background on corporate earnings quality. Results show that executives with a digital background enhance earnings quality, and this relationship is more significant in companies with less managerial power, longer executive tenure, non-state-owned enterprises and non-high-tech industries. Mechanism tests indicate that this effect is achieved by increasing IT application and improving information transparency. Further research reveals that executives’ experiential imprints and directors’ digital backgrounds more significantly enhance earnings quality. Executives’ digital backgrounds exert a more pronounced impact on downward earnings management, real earnings management, and classification shifting earnings management. The findings enrich the literature on the governance effects of executive background under the upper echelons theory and offer insights for corporate executive recruitment and for identifying earnings management strategies in the digital era.