Does Digital Construction Improve The Investment Efficiency Of Enterprises?

Since the reform and opening up of China,the economy has achieved high growth rates,partly because of the massive investment of resources and partly because of increasing efficiency.But the former was not sustainable,while the latter has also seen a gradual decline in recent years.Currently,China’s economy has shifted from a stage of high growth to one of high-quality development.In a situation where the overall rate of return of the economy is in serious decline,it is crucial to shift the driving force of economic development from being driven by total investment to being driven by investment efficiency.The current booming digital economy provides a new opportunity for the transformation of dynamic energy and injects new vitality into the high-quality development of the economy.Digital construction is an effective aid to promote the high-quality development of enterprises,promoting fundamental changes in corporate governance,internal control and operational mechanisms,and whether it can promote the improvement of enterprise investment efficiency and help the high-quality development of the economy is an issue to which enterprises and the government attach great importance nowadays.Based on this,this thesis examines the impact of digital construction on corporate investment efficiency and its impact mechanism in the context of the digital economy,and further explores the heterogeneity of this impact,the time lag and the moderating effect of managerial competence on the relationship between the two.This has practical implications for how enterprises can improve their investment efficiency since digital construction.This thesis empirically investigates the impact of digital construction on corporate investment efficiency,while exploring its impact path,using data from Chinese listed manufacturing companies from 2013-2020.It is found that:(1)Digital construction is significantly and positively related to enterprise investment efficiency,the higher the degree of digital construction,the higher the investment efficiency of enterprises,and through regression analysis after dimensional reduction decomposition,it is found that enterprise digital construction will improve investment efficiency by alleviating under-investment and inhibiting over-investment.(2)Through the intermediary effect test,it is clear that the digital construction of enterprises enhances the investment efficiency of enterprises by reducing agency costs and alleviating financing constraints.(3)Further analysis shows that the impact of digital construction on enterprise investment efficiency is characterised by significant industry and property rights heterogeneity.Industry heterogeneity shows that the promotion effect of digital construction on enterprise investment efficiency is more significant in machinery manufacturing,light industry and high-tech industry;property rights heterogeneity shows that it is more significant in non-state-owned enterprises;in addition,it improves investment efficiency in enterprises with insufficient free cash flow by alleviating(4)The improvement effect of digital construction on enterprise investment efficiency has a certain time lag,and the managerial ability plays a moderating role in it,and the managerial ability can promote the improvement effect of digital construction on enterprise investment efficiency.Based on the above findings,the following are the takeaways and recommendations of this thesis:(1)The government should improve the incentive policy system and classify and implement policies to promote the rapid development of the digital economy.(2)Enterprises should keep up with the digital wave,implement digital transformation strategies that match their actual situation and continuously promote their own digital transformation.(3)Establish digital management platforms and introduce intelligent decision-making systems to give full play to the advantages of digitalisation and improve the efficiency of corporate investment.(4)Strengthen the construction of a competence evaluation mechanism for professional managers and enhance the capacity of management to realise the sustainable release of the value of digital transformation.This study expands the research related to the economic consequences of digital construction and enriches the research on the factors influencing the investment efficiency of enterprises.It also explores the impact of digital construction on investment efficiency,heterogeneity,time lag and the moderating effect of managerial capacity,which can provide some reference basis for enterprises to carry out digital construction and governments to formulate relevant policies.