Search

Digital technology has a significant impact on most industries in the 21st century. The publishing industry is also facing digital transformation, and the traditional paper business is considered polluted and wasteful as it generates carbon emissions. To compare the influence of digital paperless business with the traditional one on environmental performance in publishing, this paper adopts a refined weak disposability model initially introduced by Kuosmanen (2005). The main novelty of the paper is to include two types of desirable outputs in production technology: one is linked to generating undesirable outputs while another is not. Two additional economic assumptions can be imposed on environmental production technology, namely, weak disposability and null-jointness, respectively. We apply the refined model to assess the economic and environmental performance of the publishing industry in China. The paper business generates carbon emissions while the digital outputs (paperless business) may not produce pollution. The empirical results indicate that a vast potential improvement is detected for the digital outputs while limited progress is allowed for traditional outputs. Furthermore, we use the entropy method to obtain a comprehensive digital technology indicator and further explore its influence on performance in the publishing industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the digital economy era, traditional manufacturing enterprises face a significant challenge due to fierce competition regarding products, channels, digital technology, management, and core competencies. As a result, many enterprises strive to leverage digital technology to gain new processes, products, services, and business models, thereby enhancing their competitive edge. This paper mainly focuses on how digital innovation based on different value-creation methods can help enterprises build their core competence. Using a sample of 254 questionnaires from manufacturing enterprises in China, this study investigates whether and how efficiency-based, convergence-based, and generativity-based digital innovation supports the development of core competence using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. Further, this paper examines the moderating effect of absorptive capacity. The empirical results indicate that digital innovation encourages the establishment of core competence, and absorptive capacity strengthens the role of efficiency-based digital innovation but inhibits convergence-based and generativity-based digital innovation. This study contributes to a clearer understanding of the significance of digital innovation for Chinese manufacturing enterprises and provides useful insights for other countries to rethink their innovation models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the perspective of the innovation value chain, this paper divides the technological innovation of new energy enterprises into research and development and results transformation stages, uses the panel data of listed Chinese new energy enterprises from 2016 to 2021 to test the impact of urban digital economy development on the two-stage innovation efficiency, and examines the moderating role of organizational inertia and entrepreneurship on the relationship between the two. The study found that the development of the digital economy has significantly improved the efficiency of enterprises' two-stage innovation, but its role in promoting the stage of research and development is more obvious; Organizational inertia and entrepreneurship have a positive moderating effect on the relationship between the two; Further research found that there are regions, urban class and population size, and enterprise nature differences in the impact of digital economy development on the efficiency of two-stage innovation of enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of digital transformation on pay gap between executives and employees using a large panel of listed companies in China spanning 2013–2020. Baseline results show that digital transformation of enterprises can largely increase the pay gap. Mechanism tests show that the digital transformation of enterprises increases the income of executives and ordinary employees, and the income of executives is increasing faster than ordinary employees. Furthermore, employee's skill level is an important influence mechanism of the effect of digital transformation on within pay gap. Heterogeneity analysis finds that this effect is more pronounced in firms with fierce industry competition, traditional firms, large firms, and firms with lower shareholdings of executives. Lastly, we find that the pay gap induced by digital transformation enhances corporate performance. Overall, this study complements the determinants of compensation structure from a new perspective of digital transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates whether digital transformation promotes corporate philanthropy in the Chinese context. We find that corporate digital transformation enhances philanthropic giving and internal pay gap negatively moderates the effect. In addition, we validate the potential channels of decision-making and information transmission that digital transformation affects corporate philanthropy. Further testing shows that digital transformation has more positive effects on corporate philanthropy in high-level digitalized or social-trusted regions than in low-level counterparts. This study enriches our understanding of the impact mechanism of digital transformation on corporate philanthropic giving and provides a new theoretical perspective on the process of corporate philanthropy decision-making in the digital era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the resource orchestration theory (ROT), this research explores the significant role of digital infrastructure in enabling business model governance innovation (BMGI) within manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Using a sample of 237 cases from Guangdong Province, China, linear regression analysis demonstrated that digital infrastructure could significantly facilitate such innovation. Additionally, both design and use recombination acted as mediators, with design recombination yielding a substantially stronger positive impact on BMGI. This study also highlighted the contrasting impact between discrete and process manufacturing, showing that discrete manufacturing derives more substantial benefits from digital infrastructure. The findings of this research provide valuable theoretical insights into the digital transformation and value creation of SMEs in the manufacturing sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital economy development gives birth to new market norms and competition rules, which push digital transformation and further form the legitimacy isomorphism effect to decrease corporate bankruptcy risk. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms from 2011 to 2019, this study investigated how digital economy development influences corporate bankruptcy risk. We observe a negative relationship between digital economy development and bankruptcy risk. This negative relationship is more pronounced in firms when the degree of digital transformation, managerial incentive and internal supervision is expected to be high.Additionally, the risk effect of digital economy is more pronounced for firms with more media coverage, lower urban wealth, industry competition, and better government governance. Our study has implications for research on the microeconomic consequences of digital economy development and the factors influencing corporate bankruptcy risk, providing empirical evidence for bankruptcy risk management in the digital economy era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting the synergetic growth of the economy, energy, and environment is crucial in the context of China's digital revolution. This research assesses the impact of digital financial inclusion on energy consumption, considering spatial dimensions and exploring the mechanisms involved in this relationship. The findings reveal the following: (1) As digital financial inclusion spreads, there is a decrease in energy use. This effect exhibits spatial spillover. (2) The depth of use dimension in digital financial inclusion significantly influences energy consumption. This influence is particularly notable in underdeveloped areas and cities with lower levels of innovation and entrepreneurship capacity. (3) Industrial agglomeration serves as a mechanism through which digital financial inclusion impacts energy consumption. Consequently, the development of digital financial inclusion should complement energy policies, providing increased support to underdeveloped regions while promoting the adjustment and transfer of industrial structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering national big data comprehensive experimental zones' (NBDCEZs) construction as a quasi-natural experiment, we employ a multi-period difference-in-differences method, investigating NBDCEZs' impact on green finance. Based on China's provincial panel data from 2008 to 2020, we find that NBDCEZs have a significant positive impact on green finance. Furthermore, high regional innovation capacity and foreign direct investment can enhance this effect, which differs depending on China's five main economic circles, pilot zone types, and urban characteristics. Besides providing implications on utilizing digital technology for green finance, our study benchmarks China's practices for other emerging countries, looking to develop green finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the digital transformation of China's financial system and the synergistic growth of its economic environment, this research explores the impact of digital finance development on the environmental performance of enterprises. Through empirical analysis of data gathered from A-share heavy polluters from 2011 to 2020, our findings show that digital finance effectively improves the environmental performance of heavy polluters. The conclusions remain robust after controlling for endogeneity issues and running a series of robustness tests. The mechanism test reveals that the effects of financing and innovation are important channels through which digital finance influences industrial environmental performance. Furthermore, heterogeneity analysis shows that the beneficial influence of digital finance on the environmental performance of firms is enhanced when firms are smaller, have non-state ownership, are located in East China, and have a lower level of financial development. These findings expand upon the factors that influence corporate environmental performance and provide empirical evidence that heavy-polluting companies should fully grasp the opportunities of digital finance development and improve their environmental performance in order to achieve higher-quality development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving energy efficiency is an important pathway for the development of green and low-carbon economy. Based on the evidence from China's green finance reform pilot zone, we apply the data of Chinese prefecture-level cities from 2005 to 2020 to analyze the action mechanism among green finance, technological innovation and energy efficiency. We find that green finance effectively promotes energy efficiency. Moreover, the analysis of action mechanism reveals that while green finance can drive green technology innovation, only high-quality green technology innovation (green invention patents) can significantly increase energy efficiency. The heterogeneity analysis reveals that green finance has a more significant effect on increasing energy efficiency in regions with large-scale economic development and weak environmental regulation. Furthermore, digital technology can amplify the driving effect of green finance on energy efficiency, and the higher the level of digital technology development, the greater the driving effect of green finance. The findings provide empirical evidence and policy implications for building a market-based green financial system and promoting green and efficient development in regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blockchain technology is an important part of the infrastructure of the digital economy. We investigate the relationship between blockchain information disclosure and trade credit. Using Python to extract the information from MD&A, the results show that blockchain information disclosure significantly increases an enterprise's trade credit. This effect is stronger for enterprises with weak bargaining power and those located in areas with high social trust. The mechanism of the effect is improved corporate governance and reduced information asymmetry, which reduce default risk. The results are consistent when we consider heterogeneity issues. Our research clarifies the significant role of blockchain technology in the real economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital technology reshapes the value chain (VC), driving value chain agglomeration (VCA). This study conducted an analysis of East Asia using a data factor flow model. The findings highlight that data researcher flow facilitates VCA while data capital flow restrains it, thus producing a VCA structure with duality. Moreover, the influence of digital technology on VCA is heterogeneous at national and industrial levels. Furthermore, the mechanism analysis employing the cross-term method shows that commodity trade intensity and trade cost have a positive role in data researcher flow on VCA, while regionalization impels the influence of data capital flow on VCA. In this case, the study provides useful insights for breaking the duality of East Asian value chain agglomeration (EAVCA) and offers empirical evidence for emerging economies to strengthen digital-driven development and achieve VC climbing by utilizing EAVCA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the rapid development of digital technology has attracted great attention from researchers, media, and policymakers, whether and how the adoption of digital technology shapes corporate social responsibility (CSR) remain unclear. In this study, we examine the effects of digital technologies on CSR based on listed firms in China's stock markets from 2009 to 2019. We find that digital transformation significantly promotes CSR. This result is unchanged when we further introduce an exogenous shock, China's 4 G-LTE policy, to identify the causality. Mechanistical analysis shows that digital technology helps companies improve pollution control capabilities and internal control efficiency, thereby improving CSR performance. Cross-sectionally, the above promotion effect is more significant in firms with low financing constraints and greater regulatory pressure. Overall, this study sheds new light on firms fulfilling their social responsibilities in the digital era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combined with buyer market theory, we attempt to analyze the relationship between digital transformation and trade credit financing from an advantage acquisition perspective. Using financial and text data from the annual reports of Chinese listed companies from 2010–2020, we find that digital transformation has a significant promotion effect on firm trade credit financing. This result is robust after accounting for a series of endogeneity and other tests. A further examination reveals that operation efficiency, information transparency, and reputation are inducement mechanisms. We also find that the promotion effect is particularly more pronounced for state-owned firms in areas with sound product market development and supply chains with lower supplier concentration. These findings have implications for understanding the role played by digital transformation in trade credit financing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though financial inclusion has drawn a lot of attention lately, especially in emerging markets, it remains unclear how it affects household well-being. This study investigates the connection between digital financial inclusion (DFI) and household well-being using two databases in China. The findings suggest that DFI is positively associated with household well-being. Mechanism analysis reveals that a rise in DFI facilitates household financial participation, thereby increasing the probability of household well-being. Our further empirical analysis demonstrates that groups with lower education and income levels are more significantly affected by DFI regarding household well-being. Overall, the research provides empirical evidence for the assertion that expanding financial inclusion in the digital economy era can promote social fairness and provide a basis for a vigorous expansion of financial inclusion in emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combining with Transaction Cost Economics theory, we attempt to analyze the impact of digital transformation on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) from a micro perspective. With the help of machine learning methods, we construct a measure of corporate digital transformation, based on which we use management discussion and analysis data from the annual reports of Chinese listed companies from 2010 to 2019 to find that corporate digital transformation can significantly promote M&A; heterogeneity analysis shows that digital transformation has a more significant effect on promoting M&A among private enterprises and companies with higher analyst coverage; and mechanism analysis shows that digital transformation influences M&A through reducing internal organizational costs; the findings have implications for understanding the role played by digital transformation in corporate boundary expansion and the impact among different firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]