Government support, director characteristics and innovation performance: evidence from China's digital creative industry

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of government support on the innovation performance of digital creative industries and to analyse the moderating role of director characteristics in the innovation process. A two-way fixed effects model and group regression are used to analyse data from 206 China's digital creative firms. The findings indicate that government subsidies and tax incentives significantly promote radical and incremental innovation in digital creative firms. Independent technical directors and female directors enhance this promotion effect to different degrees; however, internal technical directors have a suppressive effect on innovation. Our findings can provide suggestions for firms as well as governments to formulate relevant development strategies and regulatory policies.