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Employee satisfaction and digital transformation: Evidence from China’s Top 100 Best Employers list

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Listed:
  • Cao, Ce
  • Zeng, Duxuan
  • Wan, Qiong
  • Li, Yifei

Abstract

Using a sample of Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed enterprises from 2011 to 2020, this study measures listed enterprises’ employee satisfaction according to whether they were included in China’s Top 100 Best Employers (Top 100) list to investigate the impact of employee satisfaction on enterprises’ digital transformation. The study determines that enterprises on the Top 100 list with high employee satisfaction are correlated with driving digital transformation. This conclusion remains valid after considering endogeneity and conducting various robustness tests, supporting the stakeholder theory hypothesis. Mechanism tests demonstrate that employee satisfaction promotes enterprise digital transformation through three mechanism channels of human capital agglomeration, technological innovation, and mitigation of managerial myopia. The heterogeneity analysis reveals that employee satisfaction promotes enterprises’ digital transformation more significantly in non-state-owned enterprises, enterprises with high industry concentration, and those with high research and development intensity. Furthermore, enterprises with higher employee satisfaction exhibit better financial status, which improves innovation efficiency, increases income, and promotes scale expansion.

Suggested Citation

  • Cao, Ce & Zeng, Duxuan & Wan, Qiong & Li, Yifei, 2024. "Employee satisfaction and digital transformation: Evidence from China’s Top 100 Best Employers list," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:asieco:v:94:y:2024:i:c:s1049007824000861
    DOI: 10.1016/j.asieco.2024.101791
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Employee satisfaction; Digital transformation; Human capital; Technological innovation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • J28 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Safety; Job Satisfaction; Related Public Policy
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • M54 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Labor Management
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D

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