Strengthening and expanding the real economy’s foundation necessitates enhancing the capabilities and level of financial services targeted at the real sector. This study examines the governance effect of institutional investors’ site visits on corporate financialization. Using comprehensive site visit data and detailed textual analyses from firms listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, our empirical analysis robustly finds that institutional investors’ site visits significantly curtail firms’ financialization activities, as corroborated by rigorous sensitivity analyses and endogeneity tests. By undertaking thematic text analysis based on the interaction content, the study uncovers potential mechanisms through which institutional investors’ site visits play the governance role over firms’ financialization, notably by enhancing core business performance and encouraging innovation and research and development (R&D) investments. Heterogeneity analysis further reveals variations in the governance effects of site visits contingent upon factors of executive power and firm ownership nature. Grounded in the specific form of institutional investor engagement through site visit, these findings provide practical insights for encouraging firms to transition from an abstract focus to a concrete one, concentrating on core operations, and advancing the development of institutional investors.