IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finana/v100y2025ics1057521925000432.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Financial technology, population aging, and corporate innovation

Author

Listed:
  • Guo, Jing
  • Yu, Jiaqi
  • Tian, Ziqing

Abstract

This study uses city-level and enterprise data from 2011 to 2022 as the sample. Under the control of industry and year fixed effects, it employs a two-way fixed effects model to deeply explore the influences of financial technology (fintech),11FT is used as an abbreviation for financial technology (fintech) in this article. population aging, and their interaction on corporate innovation. The research findings indicate that fintech significantly promotes corporate innovation by alleviating financing constraints, while population aging hinders corporate innovation by increasing labor costs, and investment in educational resources can mitigate this negative impact. Furthermore, the study finds that the beneficial effects of fintech on innovation are weakened by aging factors. The research also reveals considerable variation in the effect of fintech on the innovation practices of firms with different management models and scales, and greater impacts are observed for enterprises adopting a dual-role separation model and large enterprises. Additionally, the effects of aging on innovation differ across degrees of digital transformation and enterprise type, with more severe negative impacts noted for enterprises with lower degrees of digital transformation and high-tech enterprises. The research findings provide valuable insights for researchers exploring the intersection of technology and demographic changes.

Suggested Citation

  • Guo, Jing & Yu, Jiaqi & Tian, Ziqing, 2025. "Financial technology, population aging, and corporate innovation," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finana:v:100:y:2025:i:c:s1057521925000432
    DOI: 10.1016/j.irfa.2025.103956
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057521925000432
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.irfa.2025.103956?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. Brav, Alon & Jiang, Wei & Ma, Song & Tian, Xuan, 2018. "How does hedge fund activism reshape corporate innovation?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(2), pages 237-264.
    2. Ding, Na & Gu, Leilei & Peng, Yuchao, 2022. "Fintech, financial constraints and innovation: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    3. Li, Jianping & Li, Jingyu & Zhu, Xiaoqian & Yao, Yinhong & Casu, Barbara, 2020. "Risk spillovers between FinTech and traditional financial institutions: Evidence from the U.S," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    4. Liu, Jiangtao & Zhang, Yi & Kuang, Jia, 2023. "Fintech development and green innovation: Evidence from China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    5. Bai, Hengrui & Huang, Lingyu & Wang, Ziqi, 2024. "Supply chain financing, digital financial inclusion and enterprise innovation: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    6. Tan, Zhuohong & Wang, Handi & Hong, Yunzhe, 2023. "Does bank FinTech improve corporate innovation?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 55(PA).
    7. Alda, Mercedes, 2017. "The relationship between pension funds and the stock market: Does the aging population of Europe affect it?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 83-97.
    8. Zhi Yu & Yali Cao & Baoyin Qiu, 2025. "Can emission right mortgage loan promote corporate innovation?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(4), pages 441-447, January.
    9. Li, Shiyu & Yang, Jun, 2024. "Administrative incentives and enterprise green innovation: Based on empirical evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 62(PA).
    10. Xing Cai & Yinhe Zhang, 2023. "Population Aging and Household Tourism Consumption—An Empirical Study Based on China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-19, June.
    11. Zhu, Keda & Guo, Lihong, 2024. "Financial technology, inclusive finance and bank performance," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    12. Liu, Guangqiang & Lv, Lingli, 2022. "Government regulation on corporate compensation and innovation: Evidence from China's minimum wage policy," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    13. Xie, Xueyan & Zhu, Xiaoyang, 2022. "FinTech and capital allocation efficiency: Another equity-efficiency dilemma?," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    14. Ping Zhang & Yiru Wang & Ruyan Wang & Tewei Wang, 2024. "Digital finance and corporate innovation: evidence from China," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(5), pages 615-638, January.
    15. Du, Lixia & Geng, Baiyang, 2024. "Financial technology and financing constraints," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    16. Bo Zhang & Ruixue Zhou & Limei Yang & Ximeng Zhang, 2023. "Population aging and corporate innovation: evidence from China," Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting & Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(4), pages 986-1007, July.
    17. Wang, Yaozhong & He, Pinzhen, 2024. "Enterprise digital transformation, financial information disclosure and innovation efficiency," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    18. Liang, Wuchao & Wang, Ying & Hou, Li, 2023. "Does private equity investment influence enterprise innovation strategy?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PD).
    19. Tian, Xiaohan & Lu, Haiyong, 2023. "Digital infrastructure and cross-regional collaborative innovation in enterprises," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PC).
    20. Hongxing Peng & Yuanyuan Xu, 2025. "How does intellectual property protection matter? Infringement disputes and corporate innovation investment persistence," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(4), pages 582-585, February.
    21. Yang, Zongzhi & Li, Yali & Wu, Chanti, 2025. "Population aging, fintech, and agricultural economic resilience," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    22. François Derrien & Ambrus Kecskés & Phuong-Anh Nguyen, 2023. "Labor Force Demographics and Corporate Innovation," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 36(7), pages 2797-2838.
    23. Shai Bernstein, 2015. "Does Going Public Affect Innovation?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(4), pages 1365-1403, August.
    24. Zhang, Yin & Peng, Hongxing & Liu, Tingli & Xie, Kehuang, 2024. "Corporate innovation and analysts’ estimates of the cost of equity: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(PA), pages 83-101.
    25. Luo, Sumei & Sun, Yongkun & Yang, Fan & Zhou, Guangyou, 2022. "Does fintech innovation promote enterprise transformation? Evidence from China," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    26. Dai, Haiyan & Dong, Xueqin & Xue, Fang, 2024. "Corporate credit risk and bond yield spreads: Market reactions to the spreads," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 67(PB).
    27. Tan, Youchao & Liu, Xiumei & Sun, Hanwen & Zeng, Cheng(Colin), 2022. "Population ageing, labour market rigidity and corporate innovation: Evidence from China," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(2).
    28. Wei, Wei & Zhang, Liyan & Zhang, Jing, 2024. "Executive team's digital background, financial flexibility and corporate innovation: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    29. Chen, Fangming & Mao, Shuai & Huang, Rong, 2024. "Age structure of the population and household consumption expenditure on tourism," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    30. Chen Bai & Xiaoyan Lei, 2020. "New trends in population aging and challenges for China’s sustainable development," China Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 3-23, January.
    31. Zhang, Feng & Liu, Zhiyou & Feng, Fangfang & Li, Junjun, 2024. "Can FinTech promote enterprises’ ambidextrous innovation capability? Organizational resilience perspective," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    32. Tan, Qijia & Li, Cuilan & Qin, Zhaohui & Yu, Siming & Pan, Yuchen & Andrianarimanana, Mihasina Harinaivo, 2023. "Impact of fiscal education expenditure on innovation of local listed enterprises: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    33. Wu, Feifei & Xu, Peipei & Gao, Bo & Ma, Jing, 2024. "Export contraction and input switching in an aging China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    34. Daud, Siti Nurazira Mohd & Ahmad, Abd Halim & Khalid, Airil & Azman-Saini, W.N.W., 2022. "FinTech and financial stability: Threat or opportunity?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PB).
    35. Liu, Changfei & Wu, Qiong & Yang, Zuozhi, 2024. "Population aging and corporate risk-taking," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    36. Wang, Hainan & Liu, Fengshuo, 2024. "Digital finance and enterprise innovation efficiency: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    37. Zheng, Lei, 2023. "Heterogeneous impacts of financial inclusion on enterprise innovation: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 55(PB).
    38. Liu, Dongwang, 2023. "Credit corruption, government relation and corporate innovation," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PB).
    39. He, Jie (Jack) & Tian, Xuan, 2013. "The dark side of analyst coverage: The case of innovation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(3), pages 856-878.
    40. Vivian W. Fang & Xuan Tian & Sheri Tice, 2014. "Does Stock Liquidity Enhance or Impede Firm Innovation?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(5), pages 2085-2125, October.
    41. Sheng, Jichuan & Ding, Rui & Yang, Hongqiang, 2024. "Corporate green innovation in an aging population: Evidence from Chinese listed companies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).
    42. Qian Chen & Chuang Shen, 2024. "How FinTech Affects Bank Systemic Risk: Evidence from China," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 65(1), pages 77-101, February.
    43. Huang, Nianbing & Liu, Yu, 2024. "Structural tax reduction, financing constraint relief and enterprise innovation efficiency," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    44. Lu, Yao & Li, Lu & Zhan, Huanqi & Zhan, Minghua, 2024. "Fintech, information heterogeneity, and the regional distribution effects of corporate financing constraints," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    45. Kong, Zhenhuan & Du, Jianxiao & Kong, Yilin & Cui, Xiaoyu, 2024. "Financial development, environmental regulation, and corporate green technology innovation: Evidence from Chinese listed companies," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 62(PA).
    46. Huang, Xiaoli & Huang, Xiaohua, 2023. "Impact of Chinese financial development on OFDI reverse technology spillovers: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    47. Ni, Qing & Zhang, Li & Wu, Chengsong, 2023. "Fintech and commercial bank risks–The moderating effect of financial regulation," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PC).
    48. Bhaskar, Ratikant & Bansal, Shashank & Pandey, Dharen Kumar, 2024. "CEO duality and corporate social responsibility: A moderation effect of founder CEO," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    49. Fu, Buben & Wang, Bin, 2024. "Demographic change and natural interest rate of China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    50. Jin, Xin & Zhang, Min & Sun, Guanghua & Cui, Lixin, 2022. "The impact of COVID-19 on firm innovation: Evidence from Chinese listed companies," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    51. Liu, Sujiao & Zhu, Mengcheng & Ling, Wenhao, 2023. "Research on the impact of population aging and endowment insurance on household financial asset allocation- Evidence on CFPS data," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    52. Zhang, Hao & Zhu, Yimeng, 2024. "Financial knowledge, executive decision making and enterprise innovation," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    53. Feng, Suling & Zhang, Rong & Li, Guoxiang, 2022. "Environmental decentralization, digital finance and green technology innovation," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 70-83.
    54. Joyce Hsieh, 2023. "Population aging and wealth inequality," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 56(6), pages 4223-4252, December.
    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. Qiu, Weijian & Yang, Wenxuan & Qiu, Le, 2025. "Population aging, market competition and enterprise green innovation," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    2. Che, Jiayi & Chen, Jinsong, 2024. "Empirical study on marketing investment and business innovation—A case analysis based on small and medium enterprises," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 69(PB).
    3. Seong K. Byun & Jong-Min & Han Xia, 2021. "Incremental vs. Breakthrough Innovation: The Role of Technology Spillovers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(3), pages 1779-1802, March.
    4. Zhao, Qiao & Wang, Wangqing, 2024. "Impact of digital financial tools on intermediate goods: Synergies between external funding and internal R&D investment," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 67(PB).
    5. Zhang, Ping & Wang, Yiru & Gao, Jieying, 2023. "Going public and innovation: Evidence from the ChiNext stock market," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 586-613.
    6. Tan, Youchao & Liu, Xiumei & Sun, Hanwen & Zeng, Cheng(Colin), 2022. "Population ageing, labour market rigidity and corporate innovation: Evidence from China," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(2).
    7. Wang, Zhibin & Li, Zelei, 2023. "Does minority shareholder activism enhance corporate innovation? Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    8. Huang, Rui & Quan, Lei & Luo, Haotian & Gao, Ziwei & Lai, Xiaobing & Tang, Song, 2024. "Can FinTech promote enterprise cross-region investment? ——Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA).
    9. Ching-Hung Chang & Qingqing Wu, 2021. "Board Networks and Corporate Innovation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(6), pages 3618-3654, June.
    10. Wang, Huilin & Liu, Jiliang, 2025. "Aging of population, digital financial inclusion, and public education expenditure," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    11. Zhu, Xiaoke & Wu, Hanqi & Deng, Qiyun, 2024. "Quantity or quality: Novel insights into the impact of digital finance on innovation," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    12. Guan, Yuyan & Zhang, Liandong & Zheng, Liu & Zou, Hong, 2021. "Managerial liability and corporate innovation: Evidence from a legal shock," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    13. Chen Lin & Sibo Liu & Gustavo Manso, 2021. "Shareholder Litigation and Corporate Innovation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(6), pages 3346-3367, June.
    14. Wang, Jimin & Ho, Choy Yeing (Chloe) & Shan, Yuan George, 2024. "Does cybersecurity risk stifle corporate innovation activities?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    15. Fich, Eliezer M. & Nguyen, Tung & Petmezas, Dimitris, 2023. "The effects of terrorist attacks on inventor productivity and mobility," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(1).
    16. Tian, Guangning & Zhou, Shuyuan & Hsu, Sara, 2020. "Executive financial literacy and firm innovation in China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    17. Linh Thompson, 2024. "Employee health and corporate innovation: Evidence from medical cannabis legalisation," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 64(4), pages 3927-3950, December.
    18. Choudhary, Priya & Thenmozhi, M., 2024. "Fintech and financial sector: ADO analysis and future research agenda," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    19. Sheng-Syan Chen & Chia-Wei Huang & Chuan-Yang Hwang & Yanzhi Wang, 2022. "Voluntary disclosure and corporate innovation," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 58(3), pages 1081-1115, April.
    20. Chen, Chong & Huang, Qianqian & Shi, Chang & Yuan, Tao, 2024. "Opioid epidemic and corporate innovation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).

    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:finana:v:100:y:2025:i:c:s1057521925000432. 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.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620166 .

    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.