Digital transformation, risk-taking, and innovation: Evidence from data on listed enterprises in China

Abstract

This study uses text mining technology to construct an index of digital transformation and discusses the impact of digital transformation on enterprise innovation and its mechanisms from theoretical and empirical perspectives. It also analyzes whether digital transformation can significantly enhance enterprises’ value through innovation. The findings are presented as follows: first, digital transformation has a positive and significant impact on enterprise innovation, and this finding holds true when we conduct robustness testing and endogeneity processing. Second, the influence of digital transformation on enterprise innovation varies significantly according to enterprise size, ownership, and industry. Third, risk-taking plays an intermediary role between digital transformation and innovation. Fourth, the innovation incentive effect of digital transformation has a value enhancement function with a two-year lag, while it lacks a value enhancement function in the current year, following year, or next three years. In the modern era of innovation-driven and cross-border integration, this study deepens the theoretical understanding of innovation-driven and digital transformation. It also promotes the deeper integration of real and digital economies in practice.