Research On The Impact Of Digital Transformation On Total Factor Productivity Of Resource-based Enterprises

This paper is based on the National Social Science Foundation of China project "Research on the Security and Stability Strategy of China’s Strategic Mineral Resources Industry Chain Supply Chain(2025-2060)"(No.22XGL003).It adopts a textual data mining method,a combination of theory and empirical evidence,and a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis.On the basis of the literature,theoretical basis and characteristic facts related to digital transformation and total factor productivity,it empirically examines the impact of digital transformation on total factor productivity of resource-based enterprises and puts forward relevant policy recommendations.It provides new ideas for future research on digital transformation and releasing digital dividends.The main research contents and findings are as follows.Firstly,the relevant theories such as economic growth theory,enterprise informatization theory,transaction cost theory and resource-based theory are briefly explained,and the relevant research results at home and abroad are systematically sorted out from three levels:the definition and classification of resource-based enterprises,the progress of total factor productivity research and the progress of digital transformation research,which provide theoretical support for the research on the relationship between digital transformation and total factor productivity of resource-based enterprises in this paper.The comprehensive analysis concludes that most of the literature on digital transformation and total factor productivity is based on macroscopic perspective,and there are relatively few studies that examine the relationship between the two in depth in resource-based enterprises,especially those that further analyze the inner mechanism of the two.Accordingly,we construct a theoretical framework on digital transformation and total factor productivity of resource-based enterprises,elaborate the impact mechanism of digital transformation on total factor productivity from three perspectives: linear impact,intermediary effect of specialized division of labor and dynamic nonlinear impact,and propose corresponding theoretical hypotheses.Secondly,the data of a sample of Chinese resource-based listed enterprises from2011-2019 are selected,and the frequency of each term appearing in the annual reports of listed enterprises from five aspects of cloud computing,Internet,artificial intelligence,big data,and Internet of things is counted using text analysis techniques,divided by the total length of MD&A phrases in the annual reports to portray digital transformation;and the LP method is applied to measure total factor productivity and analyze and explore its characteristic facts.It is found that: the degree of digital transformation of resource-based enterprises increases year by year during the sample period,and has obvious stage characteristics;total factor productivity,though unstable,is in an upward stage overall.Thirdly,we construct an empirical model,a mediating effect model and a threshold model to test the impact and mechanism of digital transformation on total factor productivity of resource-based enterprises.The empirical results show that: digital transformation significantly improves the total factor productivity of resource-based enterprises;specialized division of labor is an important mechanism for digital transformation to promote total factor productivity;there is a non-linear characteristic of increasing "marginal effect" in the promotion effect of digital transformation.In addition,the robustness of the results is tested using instrumental variables,dynamic GMM panel analysis,propensity score matching,and replacement of digital transformation proxies and model measures,and the test results indicate that the results are robust.Finally,heterogeneity analysis is conducted based on the micro-level using the firm’s asset specificity to reflect external transaction costs and the macro-level using the level of marketability of the firm’s region to reflect external transaction costs.The results show that the contribution of digital transformation to the total productivity of resource-based firms is more pronounced in higher external transaction cost(higher asset specialization and lower level of marketization)environments.As a side note,digital transformation can still significantly improve the total factor productivity of enterprises even in the case of higher external transaction costs.In response to the above findings,this paper proposes targeted policy recommendations to better guide resource-based enterprises to accelerate digital transformation and achieve high-quality development.