Research On The Pre-factors Of Digital Transformation And Enterprise Performance Of State-owned Enterprises

The world has undergone significant changes in its landscape,with frequent occurrences of uncertain events.Economic globalization is facing setbacks,and the international trade situation is becoming increasingly challenging.State-owned enterprises are the core driving force behind China’s economic development and play a pioneering role in achieving digital transformation.As the main entity for implementing the new development concept,state-owned enterprises need to fully exert their key role in the dynamic development of the environment by continuously deepening their digital transformation strategy.The board of directors is the main body of corporate governance,and its effectiveness determines the competitive advantage and development capabilities of the enterprise.The effectiveness of board governance is not only related to its own structural characteristics but also depends on the relationship structure formed between the board and other governance entities such as the CEO.However,there is limited research on the collaborative governance of the board and the CEO,particularly the inadequate study on the impact of their collaborative governance on strategic decision-making.Moreover,it needs to be aligned with the external environment.In the face of the growing digital transformation of enterprises,there is room for improvement in the measurement methods.A single measurement indicator is insufficient to comprehensively evaluate the level of digital transformation development in enterprises.The current few scholars who adopt a single-dimensional indicator system tend to focus only on the technological aspects,and there is a need to improve the scientificity of the evaluation system construction.Firstly,this paper takes the improvement of enterprise performance driven by the digital transformation of state-owned enterprises as the logical starting point of the research.Based on agency theory,upper echelon theory,and socio-technical systems theory,the paper reviews the classification and effectiveness of board heterogeneity,the driving factors and effectiveness of technological innovation,the connotation and influencing factors of digital transformation in state-owned enterprises,and measurement methods,providing solid theoretical and literature support for the subsequent research.Secondly,it details the data collection methods,variable measurements,descriptive statistics,and calibration.Using the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis(fsQCA)method,the necessary and sufficient analysis of the antecedent variables is conducted to indicate the relationship between board heterogeneity,the CEO holding dual roles,market competition,technological innovation,and digital transformation in enterprises,constructing a theoretical model of digital transformation.The four configurations demonstrate the"different paths leading to the same destination" resulting from the digital transformation of state-owned enterprises.Each path indicates that different antecedent configurations can lead to digital transformation,confirming that digital transformation in state-owned enterprises is the result of multiple factors and simultaneous occurrences.Furthermore,a higher separation of the CEO’s dual roles plays a supportive role in each configuration.CEO separation is conducive to scientific decision-making in enterprises.Additionally,all four configurations involve technological innovation,with most of them being high-level technological innovations that determine the strategic transformation of digitalization in enterprises.Digitalization itself is a technological revolution,and the demand for technological innovation is high in achieving digital transformation,relying on technological innovation.The heterogeneity of the board needs to be matched with corresponding market competition to achieve a high level of digital transformation.Thirdly,it further points out the relationship between digital transformation,CEO tenure,executive shareholding,environmental dynamism,and the performance of state-owned enterprises,and constructs a theoretical model to enhance the performance of state-owned enterprises.It uncovers complex causal relationships hidden beneath surface phenomena,further explores the key paths to enhance the performance of state-owned enterprises,and conducts in-depth research on each key path.It is found that regardless of high or low environmental dynamism,high-level executive shareholding and digital transformation are factors that contribute to improved enterprise performance,but CEO tenure needs to be matched with environmental dynamism.This paper has the following innovations:Firstly,it constructs a framework for analyzing enterprise digital transformation.It provides a new perspective for the strategic transformation of enterprises,evaluating them from six aspects:strategic driving,technological empowerment,organizational empowerment,environmental empowerment,digital achievements,and digital applications.The indicators are further subdivided and weighted differently to calculate the digital transformation index.This serves as the logical starting point for the study and provides a prerequisite for exploring the antecedent factors of digital transformation strategies in state-owned enterprises.Secondly,this study systematically analyzes the influence of environmental complexity,market competition,CEO,board of directors,and technological innovation on the digital transformation of state-owned enterprises.It provides theoretical references for accelerating the digital transformation strategies of state-owned enterprises in terms of their effectiveness,enriching the research on antecedent factors of digital transformation strategies.Thirdly,taking a holistic perspective,the study adopts the advanced method of QCA and explores the configurational effects of various combinations of board heterogeneity,environmental complexity,technological innovation,market competition,and the CEO.The limitations of this study are as follows:(1)The research sample only includes state-owned enterprises from the year 2020.Future research can broaden the selection of samples.Additionally,other research methods can be used to expand the scope of this study.(2)The anchoring values of the original variables were selected as the 5th,50th,and 95th percentiles,which may have some subjectivity.Future research can explore appropriate calibration methods based on the characteristics of different indicators.