数字普惠金融对中小企业转型升级的影响与机制

The Effect of Digital Financial Inclusion on the Transformation and Upgrading of SMEs and Its Mechanism

推动中小企业转型升级是引导其专精特新发展的重要环节。本文从企业转型和升级两个层面出发,选取2011—2019年沪深两市A股上市中小企业作为研究对象,研究数字普惠金融能否影响中小企业转型与升级,并从融资约束和企业经营风险两个角度分析作用机制。研究结果显示,数字普惠金融能够有效提升中小企业的技术地位,实现企业升级,但没有促使中小企业改变现有的发展模式和所属产业。从作用机制看,数字普惠金融主要通过供应链金融模式,使中小企业获得了更充足、安全的资金和更全面的交易数据。数字普惠金融在缓解了融资约束的同时,降低了企业经营风险,进而加快了升级进程。相比国有中小企业,数字普惠金融促进民营中小企业升级的效果更强;而中、西部地区的中小企业与东部地区企业相比,升级进程受到数字普惠金融的影响更深。

Promoting the transformation and upgrading of small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs)is an important part of guiding their development toward specialization,refinement,uniqueness,and innovation.This paper focuses on the transformation and upgrading of enterprises and selects A-share listed SMEs in China from 2011 to 2019 as samples.It examines the effect of digital financial inclusion on the transformation and upgrading of SMEs,and analyzes its mechanism from the perspectives of financing constraints and operational risks.In terms of research contribution,this paper distinguishes the transformation and upgrading of enterprises,and clarifies the impact and mechanism of digital financial inclusion on the transformation and upgrading of SMEs.It uses municipal-level panel data to align the research methods with actual corporate financing activities to enhance the accuracy of research findings.Moreover,it conducts an empirical analysis to reveal the role of digital financial inclusion in addressing the financing difficulties faced by SMEs,reducing regional disparities,promoting common prosperity,and achieving high-quality development.The findings are as follows.First,there is a significantly positive correlation between the digital financial inclusion index and the upgrading of SMEs.This signifies that the development of digital financial inclusion enhances the financial safety of individuals and small and micro entrepreneurs involved in the supply chain.Additionally,it provides more comprehensive transaction data to stakeholders such as banks and dealers,thereby reducing operational risks for SMEs.In other words,digital financial inclusion can effectively upgrade the technologies of SMEs.However,the relationship between the digital financial inclusion index and the transformation of SMEs is not significant,which means that digitalization fails to change SMEsdevelopment modes and industries or their transformation.Second,digital financial inclusion enables SMEs to obtain more secure and sufficient funding,while providing comprehensive transaction data through supply chain finance.This helps alleviate financing constraints and reduce operational risks,thereby accelerating SMEsupgrading.Finally,the effect of digital financial inclusion on enterprise upgrading is more pronounced in private SMEs and SMEs in the central and western regions than in state-owned SMEs and SMEs in the eastern region.