Who Adopts AI? Entrepreneurial Innovation Orientation and the Moderating Effects of Board and Regional Characteristics

This study examines how entrepreneurial innovation orientation influences firms' adoption of artificial intelligence (AI). Grounded in the attention-based view of the firm, we argue that innovation-oriented firms possess the cognitive flexibility and strategic agility required to recognize, interpret, and act on emerging AI opportunities. Using an unbalanced panel of 2,285 Chinese A-share listed firms from 2013 to 2022, we estimate firm fixed-effects regression models and find that entrepreneurial innovation orientation significantly increases firms' subsequent AI adoption. We further identify three boundary conditions that strengthen this relationship. First, boards with richer international experience amplify the positive effect by serving as knowledge brokers who channel global technology trends and best practices into the firm. Second, board gender diversity strengthens the link between entrepreneurial innovation orientation and AI adoption, consistent with diversity-based advantages and more inclusive decision-making processes that facilitate the uptake of novel technologies. Third, higher regional digitalization intensifies the effect, as supportive digital infrastructure and local ecosystems enable innovation-oriented firms to execute AI strategies more effectively. Endogeneity checks using lagged dependent variables, difference-in-differences analysis leveraging the 2017 national AI policy, and instrumental variable estimation confirm the robustness of our findings. Additional analyses reveal heterogeneous effects across ownership types. Overall, this study advances understanding of the organizational and contextual drivers of AI adoption and offers practical implications for firms seeking to accelerate AI transformation through strategic governance design and location-related decisions