IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/tefoso/v190y2023ics0040162523001579.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Enterprise digitalization, business strategy and subsidy allocation: Evidence of the signaling effect

Author

Listed:
  • Yu, Feifei
  • Du, Hongyan
  • Li, Xiaotong
  • Cao, Jiayu

Abstract

Government subsidies are often used to overcome market imperfections that constrain investment and other business activities. Since the Chinese government proposed the “Internet Plus” action plan in 2015, many companies in a number of traditional industries have made significant efforts toward enterprise digitalization. Our paper investigates the signaling effect of enterprise digitalization on government subsidy allocation. Using a panel dataset of Chinese listed enterprises from 2013 to 2018, our fixed effects model shows a significant positive relationship between companies' digitalization efforts and the amount of government subsidies they receive. Furthermore, our analysis highlights the role of business strategy in moderating this relationship. These findings suggest that enterprise digitalization efforts can send valuable signals to the government agencies responsible for subsidy allocation.

Suggested Citation

  • Yu, Feifei & Du, Hongyan & Li, Xiaotong & Cao, Jiayu, 2023. "Enterprise digitalization, business strategy and subsidy allocation: Evidence of the signaling effect," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:190:y:2023:i:c:s0040162523001579
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2023.122472
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162523001579
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techfore.2023.122472?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eller, Robert & Alford, Philip & Kallmünzer, Andreas & Peters, Mike, 2020. "Antecedents, consequences, and challenges of small and medium-sized enterprise digitalization," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 119-127.
    2. Yan Zhang & Margarethe F. Wiersema, 2009. "Stock market reaction to CEO certification: the signaling role of CEO background," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(7), pages 693-710, July.
    3. Smith, Claudia & Smith, J. Brock & Shaw, Eleanor, 2017. "Embracing digital networks: Entrepreneurs' social capital online," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 18-34.
    4. Uwe Cantner & Sarah Kösters, 2012. "Picking the winner? Empirical evidence on the targeting of R&D subsidies to start-ups," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 39(4), pages 921-936, November.
    5. Danny Miller & Peter H. Friesen, 1982. "Innovation in conservative and entrepreneurial firms: Two models of strategic momentum," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(1), pages 1-25, January.
    6. Satish Nambisan, 2017. "Digital Entrepreneurship: Toward a Digital Technology Perspective of Entrepreneurship," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 41(6), pages 1029-1055, November.
    7. Kathleen A. Bentley & Thomas C. Omer & Nathan Y. Sharp, 2013. "Business Strategy, Financial Reporting Irregularities, and Audit Effort," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 780-817, June.
    8. Stanley Slater & Eric Olson & Carol Finnegan, 2011. "Business strategy, marketing organization culture, and performance," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 227-242, September.
    9. Cao, Chunfang & Li, Xiaoyang & Xia, Changyuan, 2021. "The complicit role of local government authorities in corporate bribery: Evidence from a tax collection reform in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    10. Giebe, Thomas & Grebe, Tim & Wolfstetter, Elmar, 2006. "How to allocate R&D (and other) subsidies: An experimentally tested policy recommendation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(9), pages 1261-1272, November.
    11. Elitzur, Ramy & Gavious, Arieh, 2003. "Contracting, signaling, and moral hazard: a model of entrepreneurs, 'angels,' and venture capitalists," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 709-725, November.
    12. Wu, Aihua, 2017. "The signal effect of Government R&D Subsidies in China: Does ownership matter?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 339-345.
    13. Hughes, Paul & Morgan, Robert E., 2008. "Fitting strategic resources with product-market strategy: Performance implications," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(4), pages 323-331, April.
    14. Bianchi, Mattia & Murtinu, Samuele & Scalera, Vittoria G., 2019. "R&D Subsidies as Dual Signals in Technological Collaborations," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1-1.
    15. Danielle Higgins & Thomas C. Omer & John D. Phillips, 2015. "The Influence of a Firm's Business Strategy on its Tax Aggressiveness," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(2), pages 674-702, June.
    16. J. P. Eggers & Sarah Kaplan, 2009. "Cognition and Renewal: Comparing CEO and Organizational Effects on Incumbent Adaptation to Technical Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(2), pages 461-477, April.
    17. Chen, Yu & Wang, Yuandi & Hu, Die & Zhou, Zhao, 2020. "Government R&D subsidies, information asymmetry, and the role of foreign investors: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment on the shanghai-hong kong stock connect," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    18. Boeing, Philipp, 2016. "The allocation and effectiveness of China’s R&D subsidies - Evidence from listed firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(9), pages 1774-1789.
    19. Erik Brynjolfsson & Lorin M. Hitt, 2003. "Computing Productivity: Firm-Level Evidence," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(4), pages 793-808, November.
    20. Isabel Busom & Beatriz Corchuelo & Ester Martínez-Ros, 2017. "Participation inertia in R&D tax incentive and subsidy programs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 153-177, January.
    21. Margherita Pagani, 2013. "Digital Business Strategy and Value Creation : Framing the Dynamic Cycle of Control Points," Post-Print hal-02313107, HAL.
    22. Xu, Zhenning & Frankwick, Gary L. & Ramirez, Edward, 2016. "Effects of big data analytics and traditional marketing analytics on new product success: A knowledge fusion perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(5), pages 1562-1566.
    23. Li, Lixu & Ye, Fei & Zhan, Yuanzhu & Kumar, Ajay & Schiavone, Francesco & Li, Yina, 2022. "Unraveling the performance puzzle of digitalization: Evidence from manufacturing firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 54-64.
    24. Yan, Ziqiao & Li, Yue, 2018. "Signaling through government subsidy: Certification or endorsement," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 90-95.
    25. Edward J. Zajac & Matthew S. Kraatz & Rudi K. F. Bresser, 2000. "Modeling the dynamics of strategic fit: a normative approach to strategic change," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 429-453, April.
    26. Chatterjee, Sheshadri & Chaudhuri, Ranjan & Vrontis, Demetris & Thrassou, Alkis, 2022. "SME entrepreneurship and digitalization – the potentialities and moderating role of demographic factors," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    27. Prajogo, Daniel I., 2016. "The strategic fit between innovation strategies and business environment in delivering business performance," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(P2), pages 241-249.
    28. Ciampi, Francesco & Faraoni, Monica & Ballerini, Jacopo & Meli, Francesco, 2022. "The co-evolutionary relationship between digitalization and organizational agility: Ongoing debates, theoretical developments and future research perspectives," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    29. Craig Galbraith & Dan Schendel, 1983. "An empirical analysis of strategy types," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(2), pages 153-173, April.
    30. Theresa S. Cho & Donald C. Hambrick, 2006. "Attention as the Mediator Between Top Management Team Characteristics and Strategic Change: The Case of Airline Deregulation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 17(4), pages 453-469, August.
    31. Erik Brynjolfsson & Lorin M. Hitt, 2000. "Beyond Computation: Information Technology, Organizational Transformation and Business Performance," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 23-48, Fall.
    32. N. Venkatraman & John E. Prescott, 1990. "Environment‐strategy coalignment: An empirical test of its performance implications," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(1), pages 1-23, January.
    33. Stefaan Decramer & Stijn Vanormelingen, 2016. "The effectiveness of investment subsidies: evidence from a regression discontinuity design," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 1007-1032, December.
    34. Frederik von Briel & Per Davidsson & Jan Recker, 2018. "Digital Technologies as External Enablers of New Venture Creation in the IT Hardware Sector," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 42(1), pages 47-69, January.
    35. Michael Spence, 1973. "Job Market Signaling," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 87(3), pages 355-374.
    36. Truant, Elisa & Broccardo, Laura & Dana, Léo-Paul, 2021. "Digitalisation boosts company performance: an overview of Italian listed companies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Martín-Rojas, Rodrigo & Garrido-Moreno, Aurora & García-Morales, Víctor J., 2023. "Social media use, corporate entrepreneurship and organizational resilience: A recipe for SMEs success in a post-Covid scenario," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    2. Kun Wang & Bing Chen & Yuhong Li, 2024. "Technological, process or managerial innovation? How does digital transformation affect green innovation in industrial enterprises?," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 1-32, February.
    3. Fossen, Frank M. & Sorgner, Alina, 2021. "Digitalization of work and entry into entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 548-563.
    4. Irene Bertschek & Joern Block & Alexander S. Kritikos & Caroline Stiel, 2022. "German Financial State Aid during COVID-19 Pandemic: Higher Impact among Digitalized Self-Employed," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 2018, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    5. Taj, Saud A., 2016. "Application of signaling theory in management research: Addressing major gaps in theory," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 338-348.
    6. Santos, Susana C. & Liguori, Eric W. & Garvey, Erin, 2023. "How digitalization reinvented entrepreneurial resilience during COVID-19," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    7. Xincheng Wang & Jide Sun & Longwei Tian & Wenjia Guo & Tianyu Gu, 2021. "Environmental dynamism and cooperative innovation: the moderating role of state ownership and institutional development," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 46(5), pages 1344-1375, October.
    8. Smith, Claudia G. & Smith, J. Brock, 2021. "Founders' uses of digital networks for resource acquisition: Extending network theory online," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 466-482.
    9. J. P. Eggers, 2016. "Reversing course: Competing technologies, mistakes, and renewal in flat panel displays," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(8), pages 1578-1596, August.
    10. Pieter de Jong & Lakshmi Goel, 2016. "The influence of security analysts on CEO pay cuts," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 13(1), pages 26-52, February.
    11. Jintong Tang & Zhi Tang & Renhong Zhu & Xinchun Li, 2021. "Entrepreneurs’ resource background, innovation, philanthropy and the exit of external Investment in Private Ventures in China," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 38(2), pages 467-489, June.
    12. Muhammad Nurul Houqe & Reza M. Monem & Tony van Zijl, 2023. "Business strategy, cash holdings, and dividend payouts," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(4), pages 3999-4035, December.
    13. Hai Guo & Zhuen Yang & Ran Huang & Anqi Guo, 2020. "The digitalization and public crisis responses of small and medium enterprises: Implications from a COVID-19 survey," Frontiers of Business Research in China, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 1-25, December.
    14. Klus, Milan Frederik, 2020. "From signalling to endorsement: The valorisation of fledgling digital ventures [Vom Signalisieren zur Unterstützung: Die Aufwertung junger digitaler Unternehmen]," Discussion Papers of the Institute for Organisational Economics 3/2020, University of Münster, Institute for Organisational Economics.
    15. Feng Xiao & Meng Weidong & Huang Bo, 2021. "Research on Innovation Signals and Feedbacks between SMEs and the Government," Entrepreneurship Research Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 11(2), pages 71-98, April.
    16. Xiang, Xiaojian & Liu, Chuanjiang & Yang, Mian, 2022. "Who is financing corporate green innovation?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 321-337.
    17. Tobias Kollmann & Lucas Kleine-Stegemann & Katharina Cruppe & Christina Then-Bergh, 2022. "Eras of Digital Entrepreneurship," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 64(1), pages 15-31, February.
    18. Varshney, Mayank, 2023. "Learning-by-hiring: How do rival firms learn from focal firm's hiring," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(2).
    19. Dimitrios Koutmos & Konstantinos Bozos & Dionysia Dionysiou & Neophytos Lambertides, 2018. "The timing of new corporate debt issues and the risk-return tradeoff," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 50(4), pages 943-978, May.
    20. Oana Bărbulescu & Alina Simona Tecău & Daniel Munteanu & Cristinel Petrişor Constantin, 2021. "Innovation of Startups, the Key to Unlocking Post-Crisis Sustainable Growth in Romanian Entrepreneurial Ecosystem," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-16, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:190:y:2023:i:c:s0040162523001579. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00401625 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.