Fintech, strategic incentives and investment to human capital, and MSEs innovation

Siyu Chen and Qing Guo

The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, 2023, vol. 68, issue C

Abstract: Using a nationally representative micro and small enterprises (MSEs) survey data and Digital Financial Inclusion Index in China, we empirically study whether and how fintech impacts the innovation of MSEs. We find that the development of fintech significantly increases the probability of engaging in innovation activities, and promotes MSEs innovation input and output. The mechanisms lie in that fintech promotes long-term strategic incentives and investment to human capital of MSEs, including choosing promotion and stock as incentives instead of gifts or trips, recruiting more university graduate students, increasing training fees and technician incomes. In the heterogeneity analysis, we find that fintech has a greater impact on those MSEs which are without government subsidies and with lower technical level, higher CEO education level. Further analysis shows that coverage breadth of fintech has greater impact on MSEs innovation. This paper enriches the micro mechanisms of fintech impacts on MSEs innovation, and provides a policy basis for releasing the innovation vitality of MSEs.

Keywords: Fintech; Innovation; Micro and small enterprises (MSEs); Research and development; Strategic incentives; Investment to human capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1062940823000864
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:ecofin:v:68:y:2023:i:c:s1062940823000864

DOI: 10.1016/j.najef.2023.101963

Access Statistics for this article

The North American Journal of Economics and Finance is currently edited by Hamid Beladi

More articles in The North American Journal of Economics and Finance from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().