数字期权理论研究进展

Research Progress on Digital Option Theory

全球金融危机以来,数字经济企业在资本市场上的迅速崛起颠覆了传统的企业价值评估逻辑。数字经济企业“值钱不赚钱”现象与传统行业企业“赚钱不值钱”现象并存,使得以利润和现金流为基础的传统估值理论的解释力大打折扣。因此,近年来国外学者结合实物期权和数字经济领域的相关研究结果,提出了旨在解释数字技术投资潜在价值的数字期权理论,为数字经济企业估值和传统企业数字化转型提供了理论依据和实践指导。本文从数字期权的概念界定、生成机制、识别途径和经济价值等四个方面,对数字期权理论进行评述。现有研究表明,数字化流程、数字化知识、数字化设计和数字化平台投资过程中都会产生大量的数字期权,这些数字期权会对企业敏捷性、企业家警觉性、生成能力、吸收能力、突破式创新、企业绩效和IT能力投资等诸多方面起到积极的正向促进作用,进而提升数字经济企业估值。本文以数字期权估值、数字期权思维和数字期权流程为一体的分析框架,可为更准确地为数字技术投资价值评估提供崭新的微观视角。

Since the global financial crisis, the rapid rise of digital enterprises in the capital market has subverted the traditional logic of enterprise valuation. The coexistence of the phenomenon of “high market value with low profit” of digital enterprises and the phenomenon of “low market value with high profit” of traditional enterprises greatly reduces the explanatory power of traditional valuation method, which is based on profits and cash flows. In recent years, combined with the relevant research results in the fields of real options and digital economy, some foreign scholars have developed the theory of digital option to explain the potential value of digital technology investment, provide the theoretical basis and practical guidance for the digital transformation of traditional enterprises and the valuation of emerging digital enterprises. This paper summarizes the theory of digital options in four aspects: concepts and definitions, the generation mechanism, the identification path and the economic value of digital options. Existing research shows that digital process, digital knowledge, digital design and digital platform investment process will generate a large number of digital options, which have positive effects on enterprise agility, entrepreneurial alertness, generation ability, absorptive capacity, breakthrough innovation, corporate performance, IT capacity investment, and other aspects. The analytical framework of digital option valuation, digital option thinking and digital option process can provide a new perspective for the valuation of digital technology investment.