Can Digital Transformation Mitigate the Risk of Corporate Zombification
In the context of economic structural transformation and prevention of major risks in the new era,how to effectively resolve the risk of corporate zombification has become a topic of common concern in both academia and practice.With the diversified application of digital technology,digital transformation plays a vital role in resolving the risk of corporate zombification.However,existing studies ignore the inhibitory effect of digital transformation on the risk of corporate zombification.On this basis,this paper empirically examines the effect,pathways,internal mechanisms,and spillover effects of digital transformation on the risk of corporate zombification using data from listed companies from 2009 to 2022.The degree of digital transformation is measured through text analysis and machine learning methods.The results indicate that digital transformation significantly reduces the risk of corporate zombification,with a degree of heterogeneity observed.Specifically,the inhibitory effect of digital transformation on the risk of corporate zombification is more pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises,monopolistic industries,and regions with low marketization levels.Furthermore,the conclusions remain valid through robustness tests such as replacing core explanatory variables,changing regression models,altering the time frame and geographical scope of samples,as well as endogeneity tests utilizing instrumental variable methods and Difference-in-Differences approaches.Further researches reveal that digital transformation mitigates the risk of corporate zombification through two main pathways:enhancing information transparency and improving investment efficiency.Mechanism tests show that digital transformation can reduce the unreasonable financial support of enterprises and improve their high-quality development capabilities.Additionally,the spillover effect tests demonstrate that digital transformation has a spillover effect,reducing the risk of zombification of upstream suppliers and enterprises in the same industry.This paper reveals the inhibitory effect of digital transformation on the risk of corporate zombification,providing important insights for advancing the formulation of policies related to digital transformation and achieving high-quality enterprise development.Additionally,the contributions of this paper are embodied in the following three aspects.First,from the perspective of the risk of corporate zombification,this paper explores the micro-level evidence of digital transformation in resolving economic and financial risks,providing new insights for research on countermeasures to effectively mitigate the risk of corporate zombification.Second,this paper focuses on the channel mechanisms of reducing unreasonable financial support and enhancing high-quality development capabilities,clarifying the internal mechanism of how digital transformation resolves the risk of corporate zombification.It is found that digital transformation mitigates the risk of corporate zombification by reducing unreasonable financial support for enterprises and enhancing their high-quality development capabilities.Third,this paper also conducts an empirical analysis from the perspectives of supply chain spillovers and intra-industry spillovers,finding that digital transformation can serve as an external force to resolve the risk of zombification among upstream suppliers and firms within the same industry.This not only provides empirical evidence for digital transformation leading to high-quality economic development but also makes an incremental contribution to research on the spillover effects of digital transformation.This paper offers the following three research implications.Firstly,it is imperative to accelerate the implementation of digital transformation to assist enterprises in preventing and mitigating the risk of becoming zombie enterprises.Secondly,the government should play an appropriate role in the governance of enterprise zombification through digital transformation,neither"overstepping"nor"absenting"its responsibilities.Lastly,it is necessary to expedite market-oriented reforms to address the shortcomings in enterprises'digital transformation efforts.
digital economyinvestment efficiencydigital transformationrisk of corporate zombification
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万方数据
