Gao Xue, Ren Yixin
College of Economics and Management, Shandong University of Science and Technology, 579 Qianwan Road, Qingdao, Shandong, 266590, PR China.
Cuilian Business School, Taishan College of Science and Technology, 8 Xueyuan West Road, Shankou Town, Daiyue District, Tai'an, Shandong, 271002, PR China.
Heliyon. 2023 Jul 29;9(8):e18664. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e18664. eCollection 2023 Aug.
Based on the registration information of 30 million Chinese enterprises, this study innovatively constructs a financialization index based on the text information of enterprise business scope. Then, the impact of digital finance on small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) financialization is examined. Specifically, this study screens out SMEs involved in financial transactions by counting the keyword information in their business scope. The level of SME financialization is measured at the provincial level, based on a large number of registration samples. Empirical results based on panel fixed effects show that digital finance significantly inhibits SME financialization. On average, for each standard deviation increase in digital finance, SME financialization decreases by 0.087 standard deviations. This conclusion remains valid after a series of robustness analyses. A mechanism analysis shows that digital finance inhibits SME financialization by alleviating financing constraints, especially by providing liquidity to SMEs with relatively high financing constraints. In addition, the risk consequences of SME financialization are further examined, and SME financialization is found to significantly increase bankruptcy risk, while digital finance alleviates financing constraints and thus reduces bankruptcy risk. This study provides a new perspective for the governance of SME financialization and the optimization of the survival environment for SMEs in the context of the digital economy.
基于三千万家中国企业的注册信息，本研究创新性地构建了一个基于企业经营范围文本信息的金融化指数。然后，考察数字金融对中小企业金融化的影响。具体而言，本研究通过统计中小企业经营范围中的关键词信息，筛选出参与金融交易的中小企业。基于大量注册样本，在省级层面测度中小企业金融化水平。基于面板固定效应的实证结果表明，数字金融显著抑制了中小企业金融化。平均而言，数字金融每增加一个标准差，中小企业金融化程度下降0.087个标准差。经过一系列稳健性分析后，这一结论仍然成立。机制分析表明，数字金融通过缓解融资约束来抑制中小企业金融化，特别是为融资约束相对较高的中小企业提供流动性。此外，进一步考察了中小企业金融化的风险后果，发现中小企业金融化显著增加破产风险，而数字金融缓解了融资约束，从而降低了破产风险。本研究为数字经济背景下中小企业金融化治理和中小企业生存环境优化提供了新视角。
