Corporations' digital attitude and digital technology innovation: Are the heart and mouth in agreement or not?

In the "what to say-how to say it-what to do" context, this study uses the sample data of Chinese listed companies to investigate the relationship between digital attitude and digital technology innovation. This study shows that the importance given to digitalization and the optimism listed companies toward digitalization increase digital patent applications through the R&D investment, financing constraints and scale expansion. Additionally, digital word frequency promotes the digital innovation of other firms, whereas digital tone promotes only the digital technology innovation of other firms in the same industry. This study helps open the "black box" of companies' digital actions.