供应链金融与企业效率升级——来自上市公司公告与地方政策文件的双重证据

Supply Chain Finance and Corporate Efficiency Upgrading: Dual Evidence from Listed Company Announcements and Local Policy Documents

本文通过对2007—2019年A股上市公司320.8万篇公告和全国地方政府195.3万篇地方政策文件进行文本分析,实证检验了企业开展供应链金融业务对全要素生产率的影响。第一,企业开展供应链金融业务可以使全要素生产率水平得到显著提高。第二,突破信贷配给与优化企业融资,加强供应链联合投资与关系嵌入,推进合作研发与提升科技创新水平是供应链金融促进企业效率提升的有效渠道。第三,在引入地方政策进行进一步分析后,本文发现当企业所在地出台了供应链金融支持政策时,企业开展供应链金融业务可以获得更大水平的效率提升。本文的发现为民营企业和市场化程度低地区的企业突破信贷配给,寻求发展机会,提升企业生产经营效率提供了现实指引,也为加大对供应链金融发展的政策支持力度提供了经验证据。

In the “Guiding Opinions on Actively Promoting Supply Chain Innovation and Application”, a key measure is to “Actively and steadily develop supply chain finance(SCF),” to ensure China's position as an important center of global supply chain innovation and application. Governments at all levels in China have issued relevant policies to support the development of local SCF. However, can SCF effectively help enterprises overcome credit rationing and promote overall improvements in their production and operational efficiency? What are the channels through which SCF can facilitate the upgrading of production and operational efficiency? These questions are worthy of further exploration.In this study, we conduct an empirical analysis of the impact of SCF on the production and operational efficiency of listed companies. The analysis is based on the examination of 3.2 million listed company announcements and 1.9 million local government policy documents, from 2007 to 2019. The findings are as follows. First, SCF has a significant positive impact on a firm's total factor productivity(TFP) and efficiency. Second, SCF effectively enhances corporate efficiency through the channels of breaking credit rationing and optimizing enterprise financing, strengthening mutual investment and relationship embedding, and promoting cooperative RD and enhancing innovation. Third, if local governments introduce policies to encourage and support SCF, companies can improve their efficiency by developing SCF. Fourth, of the various types of SCF businesses, the innovation model, supplier financing, and fund and service recipients contribute to greater efficiency improvement. A series of heterogeneity tests reveal that high factor-led companies, private companies, and those located in less marketized and western regions experience more significant effects when implementing SCF.Our study makes the following contributions. First, we draw on the specialized vocabulary of different supply chain businesses and propose a text analysis method combining the “dictionary method” with the “business method” to effectively extract information on whether listed companies have engaged in SCF, along with the specific types and methods used. Second, we identify and validate three channels of SCF: financing optimization, relationship embedding, and cooperative RD, which contribute to the enhancement of corporate efficiency. We provide an in-depth analysis of how SCF influences companies' production and operational efficiency. Additionally, by utilizing multiple databases such as CSMAR, Wind, and Qichacha.com, we empirically analyze joint investments and equity collaborations within a supply chain involving listed companies, suppliers, and customers. Our findings enrich theories on improving corporate efficiency. Third, we examine the effectiveness of local government SCF support policies by analyzing relevant policy documents. We empirically investigate the impact of these policies on local enterprises' adoption of SCF and the subsequent improvement in corporate efficiency.Our study has important implications for enterprises in terms of seeking cooperation opportunities, improving innovation and RD capabilities, and enhancing competitiveness. Enterprises should seize the opportunity to develop SCF and leverage Internet of Things technology, to enable real-time logistics information tracking. They can also utilize big data analysis for inventory optimization, increase the digital and integrated transformation of supply chain management, expand mutual investment and relationship embedding with upstream and downstream enterprises in the supply chain, and establish information system interconnection within the supply chain. This can then enhance their competitiveness in the global value chain.Our study also provides empirical evidence that national and local governments should support the development of SCF. We find that companies located in regions with lower levels of marketization and less developed economies can achieve more significant efficiency improvements by developing SCF. Therefore, local governments in such regions should carefully consider national policies that support supply chain innovation and application. They should actively respond to these strategies, consider their local economic and social development realities, and coordinate efforts to implement supporting policies for local supply chain innovation. By constructing and optimizing local SCF service systems, they can create further high-quality development opportunities for local enterprises.