Enterprise Digital Transformation,Human Capital Structure And Productivity

Under the support of government policies and the catalysis of a new round of technological revolution,the process of digital transformation of Chinese enterprises has accelerated.Essentially,this transformation involves a comprehensive reshaping and reconstruction of the production and operation processes of enterprises.To effectively promote the application of emerging digital technologies,enterprises need to first improve their internal organizational structure.Specifically,digital transformation will encourage enterprises to tap into the potential of high-quality human capital,adjust their organizational structure,and optimize resource allocation to meet the requirements of the digital age.Therefore,an important question arises:Can digital transformation optimize the structure of human capital in enterprises?Furthermore,as digital investment and human capital are two key investment factors for enterprise production,what role does human capital play in the path of digital transformation affecting productivity?Addressing these questions can help answer whether the rapidly developing digital revolution can empower micro-enterprises and complete the task of transforming economic development momentum.Considering Chinese listed companies as the research object,this paper constructs an index of the degree of enterprise digital transformation by considering both internal and external environmental factors.The human capital of enterprises is measured by the education level and functional structure of employees,and the relationship between the two is empirically tested.At the same time,this paper combines enterprise digital transformation,human capital structure,and productivity to study how high-quality human capital complements digital investment and enhances the productivity effects of digital transformation.In addition,heterogeneity analysis is conducted to investigate whether different enterprise sizes and whether innovation-oriented enterprises have an impact on the empirical results.Through theoretical and empirical analysis,this paper finds that enterprise digital transformation can optimize the structure of human capital,and high-quality human capital can complement digital investment,promote the absorption and application of emerging digital technologies,and magnify the productivity effects of digital transformation.Specifically,(1)With the advancement of enterprise digitization,the proportion of highly educated employees will increase significantly,while that of low-educated employees will decrease significantly,which is reflected in the improvement of employee quality structure.At the same time,it can also optimize the functional structure of enterprise employees,which is reflected in increasing the proportion of technical employees and sales employees,and reducing the proportion of production employees and administrative employees.(2)The digital transformation of enterprises has complementary effects with employees with high and middle degrees,technical and sales staff.Due to stronger technology absorption capacity,adaptability and learning ability,the increase in the proportion of employees with high and middle degrees can promote the effect of digital application to improve productivity.At the same time,the technical experience of technical staff,the ability to analyze and solve problems,can adapt to the production flexibility and organizational change brought by digital application more quickly.In addition,sales staff have a more performance-related salary structure,and have stronger work motivation and internal motivation,which is conducive to strengthening the productivity effect of digitalization.(3)After taking endogeneity into account,the conclusion is still valid after the robustness test.Moreover,heterogeneity analysis shows that the above promoting effect is stronger in large-scaled and innovation-oriented enterprises.On the basis of theoretical and empirical research,this paper puts forward the following policy suggestions from the enterprise,government and other dimensions.First,in the process of digital transformation,enterprises should increase the introduction of personnel with high degrees.In addition,enterprises can make full use of in-service training,job rotation learning and other ways to improve the quality of human capital of existing employees.Second,innovative enterprises and larger enterprises should pay more attention to digital transformation.Third,enterprises should pay attention to the establishment of internal incentive and employee incentive mechanism,improve the work enthusiasm and internal motivation of employees,so as to better promote the digital transformation.Fourth,both digital transformation and human capital have strong spillover effect and positive externality,and relying only on market supply will lead to the shortage of human resources.The government should actively invest in the training of talents for emerging technologies,which can not only alleviate the unemployment caused by the replacement of employment caused by new technologies,but also increase the supply of high-quality human capital urgently needed by the digital transformation of enterprises.