Research On The Impact Of Financial Technology On The Value Of Small And Medium-sized Enterprise

Small and medium-sized enterprises are the most important source of vitality in China’s economic structure.They play a decisive role in stimulating domestic demand,unblocking the domestic cycle and promoting the dual circulation of domestic and foreign markets,and are the fresh force of national economic and social development.However,the development of small and medium-sized enterprises has been faced with high information asymmetry.In recent years,with the changes in the international and domestic market environment,such problems as difficult and expensive financing for small and medium-sized enterprises,high prices of raw materials,low market confidence and weak expectations have become prominent,increasing difficulties in production and operation,which further restricts the development of small and medium-sized enterprises.The emergence of fintech has injected new momentum into the healthy development of small and medium-sized enterprises.In 2020,the Guidance on Further Strengthening Financial Services for Micro,Small and Medium-sized Enterprises clearly proposed to use fintech to empower financial services for micro,small and medium-sized enterprises.Fintech uses information technology to provide diversified financial services,reduce the cost and threshold of financial services,ease the information asymmetry in the financial market,effectively benefit the long tail groups such as small and medium-sized enterprises,and can become an important driving force for the improvement of the value of small and mediumsized enterprises.In the critical period of the digital transformation of China’s economy,the systematic theoretical and empirical analysis of the relationship between fintech and the value of small and medium-sized enterprises has great theoretical and practical significance to stimulate the vitality of small and medium-sized enterprises,enhance the ability of financial services to the real economy and promote the high-quality development of China’s economy.Based on the theoretical analysis of the impact of fintech development on the value of small and medium-sized enterprises,this paper constructs a regional fintech development index using the number of fintech companies for reference,and uses panel fixed effect model to empirically test the impact of fintech development on the value of small and medium-sized enterprises and its internal influence mechanism.The findings show that the development of fintech significantly increased the value of small and medium-sized enterprises.Through the introduction of the intermediary effect model,it is found that fintech can improve the value of small and medium-sized enterprises mainly by easing financing constraints and encouraging enterprise innovation.This conclusion remains robust after considering endogeneity and a series of robustness tests including changing fintech measures,removing specific samples and lagging explanatory variables.The impact of fintech on the value of small and medium-sized enterprises is obviously heterogeneous.Specifically,the promotion effect of fintech on the value of small and medium-sized enterprises is more significant in small private enterprises and innovative enterprises.Based on the above research conclusions,this paper puts forward the following policy recommendations: actively promote the healthy development of fintech and enhance financial inclusion to empower small and medium-sized enterprises.Steadily promote the security application of data fusion to realize data interoperability and information sharing.Steadily promote the digital transformation of financial institutions and use modern information technology to improve the quality and efficiency of the financial sector.Promote the financial literacy of small and medium-sized enterprises and encourage them to actively embrace fintech.