Enterprise digital transformation and global value chain participation
Digital transformation,facilitated by the fast development in artificial intelligence,blockchain,cloud computing and big data,has become a strategic direction for traditional enterprises to improve their efficiency and international competitiveness.The China—30—Digital Economy Development Research Report(2023),published by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology,shows that China's digital economy grew by 10.3%in 2022 with the total scale reaching 50.2 trillion yuan,accounting for approximately 41.5%of the GDP.Prior literature investigated the impacts of digital transformation on enterprises in aspects of enterprise production models and efficiency,risk levels,and the capital market reactions.However,little is known on whether and how digital transformation reshapes enterprises'integration into the global value chain.Global value chain refers to the whole process of value creation of a product,including R&D,procurement of raw material,manufacturing,marketing,sales,and after-sales service,during which the value-added activities could occur across multiple markets.In recent years,the Chinese enterprises face with dual pressure of"high-end blockade"and"low-end lock-in"in the value chain due to the continuous increase in labor costs and the rise of international trade protectionism.This paper therefore aims to investigate the impact of digital transformation in enhancing the global competitiveness of enterprises and moving up the global value chain.On the one hand,enterprise digital transformation helps effectively utilize firms'financial resources,reduces the volatility in business performance and cash flows,improves the external financing capability of enterprises,providing promising financial support to the fixed capital investment required by export business.On the other hand,enterprise digital transformation enhances production efficiency by promoting innovation and reducing operational costs,though which it deeply integrates R&D and after-sales service and creates favorable conditions for enterprises to further extend their activities along the value chain and to establish competitive advantages.By combining the data of A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchange and the data from China's customs database from 2010 to 2016,this paper examines the effect of enterprise digital transformation on the degree of enterprises'embeddedness in the global value chain.The results shows that digital transformation significantly promotes the integration of enterprises into the global value chain.This results still holds after adopting a series of robustness tests,including instrumental variable estimation,entropy balance matching,difference-in-difference model,Heckman two-stage procedure,sensitivity analysis,alternative measurement of key variables,and employment of alternative samples.Mechanism tests show that the improvement in the integration of enterprises into the global value chain through digital transformation is mainly achieved by alleviating financing constraints and improving production efficiency.The heterogeneity test shows that the impact of enterprise digital transformation on global value chain embedding is more pronounced when there is better foundation for digital transformation,higher demand of labor,and lower markup.This paper enriches and expands the research of influencing mechanisms and economic consequences of enterprise digital transformation.It also provides new evidence for enterprises to better integrate into the division of labor system of global value chain so as to achieve high-quality development.This paper has two policy implications.First,enterprises should fully grasp the opportunity of the rapid development of the digital economy.In particular,they should improve the IT infrastructure required for digital transformation,promote the large-scale integration and application of technologies such as 5G,cloud computing,and artificial intelligence,and ultimately improve economic efficiency and realize the leap up in the global value chain.The state-owned enterprises should actively implement national development strategies of digital transformation,and take the leading role in enterprise digital transformation.Second,the government should help reduce the operational pressure of digital transformation for traditional enterprises by means of continuous investment in digital technology infrastructure,better top-level design of developing digital economy and timely promulgation of relevant incentive policies,including government subsidies,tax incentives,adjustment of talent cultivation structure,improvement of financial environment,and enhanced protection of intellectual property.
Digital TransformationGlobal Value Chain ParticipationFinancing ConstraintsProduction Efficiency
万方数据
维普
