Abstract: Digital innovation is exerting a profound impact on China’s economic development and social progress, with an increasing number of listed companies investing in digital technologies-drawing significant attention from both academia and industry. This paper examines the relationship between the attainment discrepancy and the company’s digital innovation, finding that when a company’s actual performance and expected performance differ significantly from each other, its management team will face greater pressure for change, thereby driving company to pursue transformation and enhance its digital innovation capabilities. Further analysis reveals that the attainment discrepancy stimulates corporate digital transformation motivations, ultimately improving digital innovation levels. Moreover, under the same level of performance expectation gap, firms are more likely to enhance their digital innovation when external financing is more accessible, industry competition is more intense, and human capital quality is higher. This study not only explains the underlying drivers of corporate digital innovation but also uncovers the mechanism through which performance feedback fosters digital transformation. The findings offer important insights for the sustainable development of enterprises and the orderly functioning of capital markets.

Key words: attainment discrepancy, digital technology, company innovation