Yang Lingyun, Zhang Zhihong, Wang Lulu, Liang Yikai
School of Accountancy, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan, Shandong, China.
School of Vocational Education Shandong, Youth University Of Political Science.
PLoS One. 2025 Feb 25;20(2):e0317503. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0317503. eCollection 2025.
Digitalization is anticipated to substantially improve information transparency and enhance the capital market's information environment. However, during the initial phase of digital transformation, companies face challenges in achieving high-quality information disclosure. This is because digital technology implementation and organizational adjustment are still at early stages. Concurrently, investors face difficulties in assessing the accuracy of disclosed information. This challenge provides management with the opportunity to overstate the benefits of digital transformation. This study investigates the impact of corporate digital transformation on management's tone manipulation behavior, using a sample of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2012 to 2021. Findings indicate that corporate digital transformation significantly fosters management's tone manipulation during its exploration phase. Media slant positively moderates this relationship. Further analysis supports the paper's hypothesis: companies with weaker financial flexibility and lower risk information disclosure levels show a stronger positive correlation between digital transformation and tone manipulation. Concurrently, mechanism analysis reveals that management overconfidence partially mediates the relationship. This suggests that digital transformation increases managerial overconfidence, thereby promoting tone manipulation. The conclusion offers new insights into enhancing management discussion and analysis information disclosure quality from a corporate strategic transformation perspective. It serves as a valuable reference for accurately identifying misleading management signals.
数字化有望大幅提高信息透明度，改善资本市场的信息环境。然而，在数字化转型的初期阶段，企业在实现高质量信息披露方面面临挑战。这是因为数字技术的实施和组织调整仍处于早期阶段。与此同时，投资者在评估披露信息的准确性方面也面临困难。这一挑战使得管理层有机会夸大数字化转型的好处。本研究以2012年至2021年中国A股上市公司为样本，考察了企业数字化转型对管理层语调操纵行为的影响。研究结果表明，企业数字化转型在探索阶段显著助长了管理层的语调操纵行为。媒体倾向对这种关系起到正向调节作用。进一步分析支持了本文的假设：财务灵活性较弱、风险信息披露水平较低的公司，数字化转型与语调操纵之间的正相关关系更强。同时，机制分析表明，管理层过度自信在一定程度上中介了这种关系。这表明数字化转型增强了管理层的过度自信，从而助长了语调操纵行为。该结论从企业战略转型的角度为提高管理层讨论与分析信息披露质量提供了新的见解。它为准确识别误导性的管理层信号提供了有价值的参考。
