企业数字化转型对融资成本的影响与机制研究

The Impact and Mechanism of Enterprise Digital Transformation on Financing Cost

企业数字化转型是数字经济时代下企业创新驱动的缩影,会对企业生产经营产生重大影响。本文借助大数据文本分析手段,识别2007—2019年上市企业年报中有关数字化转型的关键词,检验了企业数字化转型对企业融资降成本的影响。研究发现,企业数字化转型显著降低了企业融资成本。上述关系在经过稳健性和内生性处理后依旧成立。特别是这种降成本效应具有较长时间的可持续性,且融资成本越高的企业数字化转型的降成本效果越好。从机制检验来看,企业数字化转型改善了信息不对称,并提升市场的正面预期,抑制了企业的短贷长投和金融杠杆行为,强化了其内部控制和财务稳定。这些改变都有助于企业降低融资成本。本文的研究为理解数字经济时代下企业的创新转型绩效提供了有益参考。最后,本文从差异化转型、强化信息流通等方面提出了政策建议。

The digital transformation of enterprises is the epitome of innovation-driven enterprises in the digital economy era, which will have a significant impact on the production and operation of enterprises. This article uses big data text analysis methods to identify key words related to digital transformation in the 2007-2019 listed companies’ annual reports and examines the impact of corporate digital transformation on corporate financing costs. It found that the digital transformation of enterprises has significantly reduced the financing costs of enterprises and the above-mentioned relationship is still established after a series of robust and endogenous treatments. In particularly, this cost-reduction effect has longer-term sustainability characteristics. For companies with higher financing costs, the better the cost-reduction effect of digital transformation. From the perspective of mechanism inspection, the digital transformation of enterprises has reduced information asymmetry and raised positive market expectations. At the same time, it has also reduced long-term investments with short-term loans as well as financial leverage.These changes will help reduce corporate financing costs. This article provides a useful reference for understanding the innovation and transformation performance of enterprises in the digital economy era, and proposes policy recommendations in terms of differentiated transformation and strengthening of information circulation.