Research On The Influence Mechanism Of Digital Finance On SME Corporate Innovation

Innovation is the first driving force and one of the vital source of continuous development for enterprises.Unlike many large and mature companies in China,small and medium-sized enterprises face many difficulties such as financing constraints,and it is difficult to stimulate innovation.In addition,the governance level of domestic SME companies is generally low,the compensation incentive policy for management,the risk aversion of management and the degree of equity checks and balances may also affect the decision of corporate innovation spending to a certain extent.In recent years,digital finance has continued to penetrate and integrate with the real economy,showing strong innovative vitality,effectively reducing information asymmetry in market transactions through big data mining lowering transaction costs,easing capital constraints,prompting enterprises to improve their financing structure,reducing corporate debt risks and providing a new feasible path for the healthy development of enterprises and promoting corporate innovation.What is the impact mechanism of digital finance on enterprise innovation? Many domestic scholars have conducted relevant studies,but most of them test the intermediary effect based on the perspective of financing constraints.Based on SMEs,the article selects the level of corporate governance as the moderating variable and verifies the role of corporate debt risk as an intermediary mechanism between digital finance and corporate innovation,in order to broaden the research on digital finance and corporate innovation in related fields.The article combines finance-related theories and scholars’ literature to propose hypotheses,singles out annual data from 2014 to 2020 for a total of 462 listed companies on A-share main board,GEM and KIC.Using the Digital Inclusive Finance Index developed by the Digital Finance Research Center at Peking University to measure the pace of digital finance development,and the R&D expenditure /corporate revenue ratio to measure corporate innovation to empirically study the relationship between digital finance and corporate innovation relationship between digital finance and corporate innovation.And on this basis,the moderating effect of corporate governance level is investigated;Test the intermediary effect of corporate debt risk by using the traditional three-step method.Finally,heterogeneity analysis and robustness tests are conducted.The empirical findings of the article are as follows:(1)Digital finance development can promote SMEs’ innovation to a certain extent.(2)The level of corporate governance plays a positive moderating role in the relationship between digital finance and SME innovation.However.the moderating effect is stronger in non-state-owned enterprises than in state-owned enterprises.and the moderating effect is weaker in enterprises in the non-eastern region than in the east.(3)Digital finance can influence SMEs’ innovation by affecting SMEs’ debt risk.And suggestions are given in response to the empirical findings :(1)Research on digital finance technology should be strengthened to deepen the level of digital financial services for the real economy.(2)Enterprises should improve corporate governance in many aspects and establish an effective corporate governance mechanism so that digital finance can better function for corporate innovation.(3)Set a reasonable level of debt by integrating the enterprise’s own situation and solvency to prevent excessive debt risk.(4)Continuously encourage SMEs to engage in innovative activities.Promote the integration between digital technology and finance.and pay attention to the risk of potential vulnerabilities.