Can Fintech Break through the"Space Barriers"to SMEs Financing through Empowerment?——Micro Evidence from the Changes in Spatial Layout of the Banking Industry
Selecting a sample of China's National Equities Exchange and Quotations(NEEQ)listed companies between 2011 and 2019,and combining the theories of information economics and financial geography,this paper systematically investigates the impact of fintech development on the characteristics of financing space for small and medium-size enterprises(SMEs).The research find-ings reveal that there are"space barriers"in the financing of SMEs,and an increase in spatial distance exacerbates the constraints on their financing.However,the development of fintech can partially dismantle these barriers.It is worth noting that the impact of fintech on operational distance is more significant than on functional distance,indicating certain limitations of fintech in addressing the challenges associated with cross-organizational transmission of soft information.Mechanism tests indicate that the key to fintech's"breaking the barriers"effect lies in substituting digital information for traditional soft information and enhancing banks'ability to discern information about businesses.The application of fintech,the digital transformation efforts of banks,and the digital informa-tion accumulation of enterprises are all indispensable factors in the process of effective information substitution.The effect is more pronounced in regions with limited transformation infrastructure,credit markets with more large banks and more competition,and en-terprises with a higher degree of digital transformation.
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