数字金融对中小企业创新激励——效应识别、机制和异质性研究

The Incentive of Digital Finance on the Innovation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises:Utility Identification,Mechanism and Heterogeneity Research

数字金融作为数字科技与传统金融深度结合的产物,能否解决中小企业融资难题、释放中小企业经营活力从而激励其技术创新?文章利用2011—2017年中国中小板和创业板上市企业数据,实证考察了数字金融对中国中小企业技术创新的激励效应及作用机理。研究发现:数字金融对中小企业创新具有明显的激励作用,且该作用在长期依旧存在;数字金融的创新激励效应具有"结构性"特征,且随企业创新水平的提升呈先增后减趋势;从作用机制看,数字金融可通过增加流动性、降低融资成本、提高经营收入三个方面激励中小企业技术创新;异质性分析表明,数字金融的创新激励效应在非国有中小企业、传统金融发展滞后地区中小企业中更为明显。

As a deep integration of digital technology and traditional finance,can digital finance solve the financing problems of small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs),stimulate their business vitality and encourage their technological innovation?Data of listed enterprises of China’s Small and Medium-sized Board and Growth Enterprise Board from 2011 to 2017 are used,and an empirical analysis is made on the incentive effect and the mechanism of digital finance on the technological innovation of SMEs.The study shows that digital finance has a significant positive effect on the technological innovation of SMEs,and the effect will last for a long time.The innovation incentive effect of digital finance has a“structural”feature,and it shows a trend of“increasing first and then decreasing”with the increase of technological innovation.From the perspective of mechanism,digital finance can promote the technological innovation of SMEs through three channels,including increasing liquidity,reducing financing cost and improving operating performance.The heterogeneity analysis shows that the innovation incentive effect is more significant in non-state-owned SMEs and the SMEs in financially backward regions.