IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v56y2023ics154461232300524x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does digital transformation restrain corporate financialization? Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Zhang, Ziqi
  • Su, Zhi
  • Tong, Fang

Abstract

We investigate the effect of digital transformation on corporate financialization using a sample of Chinese listed firms from 2012-2021. We find that digital transformation exerts a negative impact on corporate financialization by decreasing financial investments while increasing real investments. More innovative activities and less operational uncertainty are two plausible channels that enable digital transformation to redeploy a greater number of resources from financial assets to real investments. We show that the effect of digital transformation on financialization is more prominent in companies with greater internal investment efficiency and external marketization levels. Our paper provides new insights on the effect of digital transformation on corporate financialization.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Ziqi & Su, Zhi & Tong, Fang, 2023. "Does digital transformation restrain corporate financialization? Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:56:y:2023:i:c:s154461232300524x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2023.104152
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S154461232300524X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2023.104152?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Julian Atanassov, 2013. "Do Hostile Takeovers Stifle Innovation? Evidence from Antitakeover Legislation and Corporate Patenting," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(3), pages 1097-1131, June.
    2. Brav, Alon & Jiang, Wei & Ma, Song & Tian, Xuan, 2018. "How does hedge fund activism reshape corporate innovation?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(2), pages 237-264.
    3. Biddle, Gary C. & Hilary, Gilles & Verdi, Rodrigo S., 2009. "How does financial reporting quality relate to investment efficiency?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2-3), pages 112-131, December.
    4. Demir, FIrat, 2009. "Financial liberalization, private investment and portfolio choice: Financialization of real sectors in emerging markets," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 314-324, March.
    5. Paunov, Caroline & Rollo, Valentina, 2016. "Has the Internet Fostered Inclusive Innovation in the Developing World?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 587-609.
    6. Yu, Mingzhe & Deng, Xin, 2021. "The Inheritance of Marketization Level and Regional Human Capital Accumulation: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    7. Jiang, Fuxiu & Shen, Yanyan & Cai, Xinni, 2022. "Can multiple blockholders restrain corporate financialization?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    8. S. Trevis Certo & John R. Busenbark & Hyun‐soo Woo & Matthew Semadeni, 2016. "Sample selection bias and Heckman models in strategic management research," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(13), pages 2639-2657, December.
    9. Daron Acemoglu & Ufuk Akcigit & Harun Alp & Nicholas Bloom & William Kerr, 2018. "Innovation, Reallocation, and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(11), pages 3450-3491, November.
    10. Reinhard Prügl & Dinah Isabel Spitzley, 2021. "Responding to Digital Transformation by External Corporate Venturing: An Enterprising Family Identity and Communication Patterns Perspective," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(1), pages 135-164, January.
    11. Chen, Yufeng & Xu, Jing, 2023. "Digital transformation and firm cost stickiness: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    12. Feng, Yumei & Yao, Shouyu & Wang, Chunfeng & Liao, Jing & Cheng, Feiyang, 2022. "Diversification and financialization of non-financial corporations: Evidence from China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    13. Alvin Chung Man Leung & Ashish Agarwal & Prabhudev Konana & Alok Kumar, 2017. "Network Analysis of Search Dynamics: The Case of Stock Habitats," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(8), pages 2667-2687, August.
    14. Jin, Xiao Meng & Mai, Yong & Cheung, Adrian Wai Kong, 2022. "Corporate financialization and fixed investment rate: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    15. Ha, Le Thanh, 2022. "Effects of digitalization on financialization: Empirical evidence from European countries," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    16. Hyunseob Kim & Howard Kung, 2017. "The Asset Redeployability Channel: How Uncertainty Affects Corporate Investment," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 30(1), pages 245-280.
    17. Zhou, Shuya & Zhou, Peiyan & Ji, Hannah, 2022. "Can digital transformation alleviate corporate tax stickiness: The mediation effect of tax avoidance," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    18. Hughes, Alex & Park, Andrew & Kietzmann, Jan & Archer-Brown, Chris, 2019. "Beyond Bitcoin: What blockchain and distributed ledger technologies mean for firms," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 273-281.
    19. Ran Duchin, 2010. "Cash Holdings and Corporate Diversification," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(3), pages 955-992, June.
    20. Fisch, Christian, 2019. "Initial coin offerings (ICOs) to finance new ventures," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 1-22.
    21. Broccardo, Laura & Zicari, Adrián & Jabeen, Fauzia & Bhatti, Zeeshan A., 2023. "How digitalization supports a sustainable business model: A literature review," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    22. Rijswijk, Kelly & de Vries, Jasper R. & Klerkx, Laurens & Turner, James A., 2023. "The enabling and constraining connections between trust and digitalisation in incumbent value chains," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 186(PA).
    23. Aibai, Abuduwali & Peng, Yuchao & Shen, Peiyi & Xu, Hongmei, 2022. "Can local policy uncertainty curtail corporate speculation on financial assets?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    24. Ran Duchin & Thomas Gilbert & Jarrad Harford & Christopher Hrdlicka, 2017. "Precautionary Savings with Risky Assets: When Cash Is Not Cash," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(2), pages 793-852, April.
    25. Gaglio, Cyrielle & Kraemer-Mbula, Erika & Lorenz, Edward, 2022. "The effects of digital transformation on innovation and productivity: Firm-level evidence of South African manufacturing micro and small enterprises," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    26. Manita, Riadh & Elommal, Najoua & Baudier, Patricia & Hikkerova, Lubica, 2020. "The digital transformation of external audit and its impact on corporate governance," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    27. Tian, Guangning & Li, Bo & Cheng, Yue, 2022. "Does digital transformation matter for corporate risk-taking?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    28. Fletcher, Gordon & Griffiths, Marie, 2020. "Digital transformation during a lockdown," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xiuhai Huang & Zhenyu Xu, 2024. "Has the development of the digital economy increased corporate financial asset holdings? --A quasi-natural experiment based on the "Broadband China" policy," Journal of Economic Statistics, Anser Press, vol. 2(1), pages 18-37, January.
    2. repec:bba:j00005:v:2:y:2024:i:1:p:19-38:d:284 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Wang, Sai & Wen, Wen & Niu, Yuhao & Li, Xin, 2024. "Digital transformation and corporate labor investment efficiency," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    4. Li, Cong & Liu, Jiaxuan & Liu, Yuwei & Wang, Xiaoyu, 2023. "Can digitalization empowerment improve the efficiency of corporate capital allocation? —Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1794-1810.
    5. Guo, Borui & Huang, Xiaoxia, 2024. "Digital transformation tone signal and the cost of equity: Evidence from Chinese listed companies," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gong, Cynthia M. & Gong, Pu & Jiang, Mengting, 2023. "Corporate financialization and investment efficiency: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    2. Ke Guo & Xuemeng Guo & Jun Zhang, 2023. "Financial asset allocation duality and enterprise upgrading: empirical evidence from the Chinese A-share market," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-11, December.
    3. Shi, Wenxiang & Fang, Peijie, 2023. "Delisting regulation and corporate financialization: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PD).
    4. Li, Xiao-Lin & Qiu, Guojing & Ding, Hui, 2022. "The impact of exchange rate policy uncertainty shock on Chinese energy firms' risk-taking," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    5. Wu, Kai & Lu, Yufei, 2023. "Corporate digital transformation and financialization: Evidence from Chinese listed firms," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    6. Shuxia Zhang & Xiangyang Yin & Liping Xu & Ziyu Li & Deyue Kong, 2022. "Effect of Environmental, Social, and Governance Performance on Corporate Financialization: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-20, August.
    7. Chen, Yan & Sun, Ruiqi, 2023. "Corporate financialization and the long-term use of short-term debt: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PD).
    8. Shu, Jiaxian & Zhang, Chengsi & Zheng, Ning, 2020. "Financialization and sluggish fixed investment in Chinese real sector firms," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 1106-1116.
    9. Huang, Jialin & Luo, Yu & Peng, Yuchao, 2021. "Corporate financial asset holdings under economic policy uncertainty: Precautionary saving or speculating?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 1359-1378.
    10. Leng, Tiecheng & Liu, Ying & Xiao, Yi & Hou, Chunxiao, 2023. "Does firm financialization affect optimal real investment decisions? Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    11. Gu, Leilei & Liu, Zhongyang & Ma, Sichao & Wang, Hongyu, 2022. "Social trust and corporate financial asset holdings: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    12. Xu, Xiaodong & Mu, Yayu & Wang, Juan, 2023. "Corporate risk and financial asset holdings," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    13. Long, Houyin & Huang, Xiang & Wang, Jiaxin, 2023. "How does energy finance promote energy transition? Evidence from Shanghai crude oil futures," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    14. Ma, Sichao & Shen, Ji & Wang, Fanzhi & Wu, Wanting, 2022. "A tale of two Us: Corporate leverage and financial asset allocation in China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    15. Feng, Yumei & Yao, Shouyu & Wang, Chunfeng & Liao, Jing & Cheng, Feiyang, 2022. "Diversification and financialization of non-financial corporations: Evidence from China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    16. Zhao, Yan & Su, Kun, 2022. "Economic policy uncertainty and corporate financialization: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    17. Su, Kun & Zhao, Yan & Wang, Yinghui, 2024. "Customer concentration and corporate financialization: Evidence from non-financial firms in China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    18. Fich, Eliezer M. & Nguyen, Tung & Petmezas, Dimitris, 2023. "The effects of terrorist attacks on inventor productivity and mobility," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(1).
    19. Zhongbo Jing & Shiyu Lu & Yang Zhao & Jun Zhou, 2023. "Economic policy uncertainty, corporate investment decisions and stock price crash risk: Evidence from China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(S1), pages 1477-1502, April.
    20. Aibai, Abuduwali & Peng, Yuchao & Shen, Peiyi & Xu, Hongmei, 2022. "Can local policy uncertainty curtail corporate speculation on financial assets?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Digital transformation; Corporate financialization; Real investment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:56:y:2023:i:c:s154461232300524x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.