Abstract: This study examines the impact of executive talent selection perspectives on corporate innovation by analyzing the source attributes of executive resumes from Chinese listed companies between 2008 and 2021. We categorize these attributes into internal promotion and external recruitment and construct corresponding selection perspectives. Our findings indicate that: (1) Companies preferring internal promotion enhance innovation capability, while those favoring external recruitment experience a decline in innovation. (2) External recruitment negatively affects trade credit, whereas internal promotion improves trade credit and subsequently boosts innovation. (3) Internal promotion also enhances innovation efficiency by effectively converting innovation inputs into outputs. (4) Companies with a preference for internal promotion increase the sensitivity of executive compensation to innovation performance, establishing robust incentives and greater tolerance for short-term performance fluctuations, thereby motivating executives to focus on innovation. These conclusions offer empirical evidence on the type of executive-selection orientation that firms should favor to enhance their innovation capability and provide valuable policy recommendations for China’s talent-driven innovation development.

Key words: internal promotion, external recruitment, executive talent selection preferences, corporate innovation capability, trade credit