Research On The Impact Of Digital Transformation On Corporate Financing Constraints

Emerging digital technologies have developed rapidly since the 21 st century,and in 2021,China’s digital economy will account for 39.8% of GDP,ranking second in the world.Driven by the deep integration of the new generation of digital technologies and the real economy,digital transformation has become a necessary path for high-quality enterprise development and has received wide attention from outside.The literature has focused on the economic consequences of digital transformation in terms of enterprise performance,innovation,and productivity,while financing constraints,a key factor limiting the optimal production and scale development of real enterprises,have been less studied to directly link the two.Digital transformation applies digital technology to drive organizational change and improve corporate governance,which can deliver more effective information,reduce information asymmetry inside and outside the enterprise,and generate the possibility of easing financing constraints.Therefore,it is of both theoretical and practical significance to study the impact of digital transformation on financing constraints and its path of action.Based on the current background of the booming digital economy,this paper takes the listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares from 2010 to 2021 as the research objects,and explores in detail the impact and path of digital transformation on corporate financing constraints,and divides digital transformation into two dimensions:underlying technology and practical application.In addition,it further analyzes its moderating role in the relationship between digital transformation and financing constraints from four aspects: nature of property rights,industry differences,growth differences,and economic policy uncertainties,in order to reasonably evaluate digital transformation strategies.The conclusions of this paper are:(1)Digital transformation can play the "information effect" and "governance effect" to alleviate the financing constraints faced by enterprises;(2)The results of the mechanism test show that digital transformation affects financing constraints through two paths: improving the quality of corporate information disclosure and increasing market attention;(3)By dimension,both digital transformation of underlying technology and digital transformation of practical application can effectively reduce financing constraints,but the effect of the latter is more obvious;(4)From the perspective of enterprise characteristics,the reduction effect of digital transformation on the financing constraints of state-owned enterprises is more significant than that of non-state-owned enterprises;the reduction effect of digital transformation on the financing constraints of manufacturing enterprises is more significant than that of non-manufacturing enterprises;the reduction effect of digital transformation on the financing constraints of high-growth enterprises is more significant than that of low-growth enterprises;(5)In terms of the external environment,the lower the economic policy uncertainty,the more significant the effect of digital transformation on the reduction of financing constraints.The contributions of this paper are: First,the impact of digital transformation on corporate financing constraints is tested from the theoretical and empirical levels,and the different impacts of different dimensions of digital transformation on financing constraints are investigated,enriching the study of the economic consequences of digital transformation.Second,two mediating variables,information disclosure quality and market attention,are introduced to enrich the study of the mechanism of action of digital transformation affecting corporate financing constraints.Third,the different effects of digital transformation on financing constraints are further discussed in terms of the nature of property rights,industry differences,growth differences,and economic policy uncertainty,enriching the study of the heterogeneity of the relationship between the two.