Impact of Digital Finance on Manufacturing Technology Innovation: Fixed-Effects and Panel-Threshold Approaches

Xin Sheng (), Wenya Chen, Decai Tang () and Bright Obuobi
Additional contact information
Xin Sheng: School of Business, Jiangsu Open University, Nanjing 210036, China
Wenya Chen: School of Management Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
Decai Tang: School of Management Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
Bright Obuobi: College of Economics and Management, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 14, 1-24

Abstract: Digital finance (DF) has provided important financial support for the transformation and upgrading of China’s manufacturing industry. Innovation is the engine of industrial upgrading. To solve the dilemma of developing the manufacturing industry, it is necessary to enhance independent innovation capabilities. On this basis, this article studies the impact of DF on manufacturing technology innovation (MTI). It uses the data of listed manufacturing firms in the Shenzhen and Shanghai A-share markets from 2011 to 2020 to establish a fixed-effects model and a panel-threshold model for empirical analysis. The results revealed that, first, DF significantly accelerates technological innovation in manufacturing enterprises and has a significant positive impact on technological innovation. Secondly, DF drives manufacturing enterprises’ technological innovation by alleviating financial constraints (FCs). Thirdly, there is a dual-threshold effect based on market competition between DF and MTI based on market competition, and the promotion effect of DF on technology innovation decreases with the increasing degree of market competition. Finally, DF better enhances the technological innovation of non-state-owned manufacturing firms in the respective regions compared to state-owned firms. In terms of factor-intensive types, DF is more able to advance the innovative technologies of labor-intensive and capital-intensive enterprises, while it has no significant positive effect on technology-intensive enterprises. Policy implications are suggested to boost manufacturing technology innovation and aid future studies.

Keywords: digital finance; manufacturing technology innovation; mechanism analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/14/11476/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/14/11476/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:14:p:11476-:d:1201570

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().