The double-edged sword of digitalization for firm performance.

The COVID-19 pandemic relentlessly reveals missed opportunities for firms to invest in their digital infrastructure. Despite recent calls and its transformational nature, the question of how digitalization affects firm success has not been fully explored in the innovation and management literature. The primary purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of firm-level innovativeness on firm-level performance. More precisely, we assess inventors' patent-based productivity, hence innovativeness, and their use of digital technologies on firm-level sales growth and profitability. In doing so, we propose a new objective patent-based measure of firm-level digitalization. More importantly, we identify an opposite moderation effect and show how digitalization can improve and harm firm performance at the same time. Moreover, we raise awareness for the necessity to manage the digital divide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]