Present or in the future? The influence of managerial temporal focus on open innovation in high-tech firms

Chengkai Pan, Xiaoshu Ma, Wenhao Ba and Yugang Li

European Journal of Innovation Management, 2026, vol. 29, issue 1, 279-299

Abstract: PurposeBased on the attention-based view, the purpose of this study is to explore how managerial present focus and future focus influence open innovation (OI) in high-tech firms and examine the moderating role of environmental dynamism (ED) in this relationship. It further analyzes the influence of OI on total factor productivity (TFP) and product market competitiveness in high-tech firms under different managerial temporal focus.Design/methodology/approachThe sample comprised 12,020 observations (1,376 firms) from high-tech companies listed on China’s Shanghai-Shenzhen A-share markets between 2011 and 2022. This study employed the multiple linear regression model to estimate the results.FindingsThe results show that managerial future focus positively influences OI, while managerial present focus has a negative effect. ED strengthens the positive relationship between managerial future focus and OI, while diminishing the negative effect of managerial present focus on OI. Further analysis reveals that, under a future focus, OI in high-tech firms enhances TFP and product market competitiveness. Conversely, under a present focus, OI is detrimental to the company’s TFP and product market competitiveness.Originality/valueThis study explores the influence of managerial temporal focus on OI in high-tech enterprises from the perspective of temporal attention, as well as the moderating effect of ED. The findings provide a new perspective for high-tech enterprises to promote OI and offer insights for management practices from the angle of temporal attention allocation.

Keywords: Managerial temporal focus; High-tech firms; Open innovation; Environmental dynamism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/ejim/article/29/1/279/1345 ... ure-The-influence-of (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/ejim/article-pdf/29/1/279/ ... m-05-2025-0687en.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:ejimpp:ejim-05-2025-0687

DOI: 10.1108/EJIM-05-2025-0687

Access Statistics for this article

European Journal of Innovation Management is currently edited by Dr Vincenzo Corvello

More articles in European Journal of Innovation Management from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().