Research On The Impact Of Performance Aspiration Gap On The Digital Transformation Of Manufacturing Enterprises

With the implementation of industrial digitization policies and the deep integration of digital technology and real economy,traditional manufacturing enterprises have achieved leapfrog development by reshaping their production and operation mode through digital transformation.However,in the tide of digitalization,many enterprises have problems such as lack of motivation for transformation and lack of transformation methods,and fall into the dilemma of "cold start".Therefore,the academic circle has launched a rich discussion on the digital transformation,but most of the focus is on its economic consequences,and there is still a gap in the research on the influencing factors,lacking of quantitative research conclusions.Therefore,how to break the realistic dilemma and improve the theoretical system,so as to further promote the process of digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises has become an important issue urgently to be solved by enterprises and academia.The key to solving this problem is to clarify the driving mechanism of digital transformation.The digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises is faced with resource barriers and high costs,and its cross-cyclicality and output uncertainty aggravate business risks,so it will be restricted by the enterprise resource base and management quality.As a key index to measure the management quality of enterprises,the performance aspiration gap has an important reference for enterprises to promote the process of digital transformation.However,it is still unclear whether the role of "poverty leads to change" or "clinging to deficiency",whether "wealth leads to safety" or "excellence".At the same time,when an enterprise responds to the gap in performance expectations,its digital transformation decision is made and initiated by the top management team,so its digital transformation tendency will also be affected by different dimensions of social capital of the top management team.This study takes the performance aspiration gap as the entry point and tries to explore the antecedent factors of enterprises’ digital transformation.It is expected that the conclusion will provide decision-making reference for manufacturing enterprises’ digital transformation and further promote the construction of "digital China" at the micro level.In view of this,based on the threat rigidity theory,resource-based theory,literature research,empirical analysis and other methods,this study uses statistical analysis software STATA16.0,takes the performance aspiration gap as the independent variable,the enterprise digital transformation as the dependent variable,and the top management team’s social capita as the adjusting variable,and builds the impact model of the performance aspiration gap on the enterprise digital transformation.The listed manufacturing enterprises from 2011 to 2020 were selected as the research samples.Explore the dynamic mechanism of digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises.The main conclusions of this study are as follows:First,the performance aspiration deficit negatively affects the digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises,while the performance aspiration surplus positively affects the digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises.The digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises is based on the construction of digital infrastructure.The transformation process involves the optimization and adjustment of organizational structure,and the return on investment is long,so it has the characteristics of redundancy drive.Under the state of deficit,due to the threat of survival and stock price decline brought by the deficit,enterprises are more inclined to follow the past practice and make conservative decisions,and the degree of digital transformation will be reduced.In the surplus state,based on the redundant resources brought by the surplus,enterprises will have the gambling effect and the motivation of self-improvement,and seek for more innovative ways of operation to realize the leap of manufacturing capacity,so as to improve the degree of digital transformation.Second,top management team’s institutional social capital and technology social capital weaken the negative impact of performance aspiration deficit on the digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises,and strengthen the positive impact of performance aspiration surplus.Executive team institutional social capital is of great help to enterprises to make up operating losses and alleviate existential threats,reducing the negative impact brought by the deficit.In addition,under the macro trend of the government vigorously promoting the development of digital economy,priority acquisition and accurate interpretation of policy information can further enhance the enthusiasm of enterprises to use redundant resources to promote transformation.Enterprises with more abundant technical and social capital in the senior management team are more inclined to enhance their core competitiveness through pragmatic means such as digital transformation.Therefore,they are more inclined to effectively improve their production capacity and operating level through digital transformation when facing the performance aspiration deficit,and are more inclined to make digital investment and construction when facing the performance aspiration surplus.Compared with the existing researches,this study expands in the following aspects:First,through the empirical method,it explores the influence mechanism between the performance aspiration gap and the digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises,which enriches the quantitative research on the causes of enterprises’ digital transformation.Secondly,we introduce the top management team’s social capital into the framework of the impact of the performance aspiration gap on the enterprise digital transformation,and explore the moderating effect of the top management team’s social capital.The digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises is an important direction for the country to promote the development of the real economy and realize the supply-side reform of traditional industries.It is important to explore the motivation of digital transformation.It is important to promote the government to build digital infrastructure system,introduce digital economic policies,guide manufacturing enterprises to carry out digital transformation at the appropriate time,and introduce and cultivate senior management team members with rich social capital.It has important practical significance.