Research On Effects Of Digital Transformation On Firm’s Financialization

The digital economy based on modern digital technology is developing rapidly,and China has put forward the national strategic goal of "Digital China",clearly proposed to vigorously develop artificial intelligence,Internet,blockchain and big data technologies to develop new engines and cultivate new economic growth points,and actively promote the implementation of relevant policies and supporting measures to encourage the digitalization of enterprises.Digital transformation has received a lot of attention from Chinese academia and industry.Digital transformation is a systematic process of deep integration of digital technology with corporate strategies,industrial development and governance models,and is a new dynamic force for high-quality economic development.The main manifestation of the "de-realization" of real enterprises is the tendency to emphasize investment in financial assets to chase speculative returns,which is also known as the financialization of nonfinancial enterprises,and it has a "crowding-out effect" on real investment to a certain extent,which is not conducive to the high-quality development of China’s enterprises and economy.The high quality development of enterprises and the economy.Recently,China released the "Digital China Construction Overall Layout Plan",which proposes to comprehensively promote the deep integration of digital economy and real economy.The development strategy of digital transformation of enterprises is bound to have an impact on enterprise investment,which in turn has a certain degree of impact on the allocation of financial assets of real enterprises.However,there is little academic research on this topic.For this reason,this paper systematically analyzes the impact,mechanism of action and heterogeneity conditions of digital transformation on enterprise financialization based on the background of enterprise digital transformation.This paper firstly incorporates digital transformation and corporate financialization into the same theoretical framework,analyzes the mechanism of the impact of digital transformation on corporate financialization,and conducts an empirical test using the data of A-share non-financial listed companies from 2007 to 2020.It is found that the higher the degree of corporate digital transformation,the lower the level of corporate financialization,and the above findings still hold after a series of robustness tests.The mechanism test shows that the digital transformation of enterprises suppresses the level of financialization by reducing agency costs,increasing investment opportunities and increasing investment in main business.The results of the heterogeneity tests indicate that the inhibitory effect of digital transformation on corporate financialization is more significant in firms with higher analyst attention than in firms with lower analyst attention.In addition,digital transformation in firms with a higher percentage of management ownership can better exert the inhibitory effect on corporate financialization.In this paper,we use the unique perspective of digital transformation as a non-financial factor to identify the motives for "definance",and analyze the effects of digital transformation on agency costs,investment opportunities,and main business investment.It also provides policy recommendations for efficiently promoting digital transformation and promoting the "de-funding" of real enterprises.