Research on Patience Capital and Enterprise Digital Transformation

In the digital economy era, a profound contradiction exists between the long-term nature of enterprise digital transformation and the short-term pressures of the capital market. Exploring how patient capital, a heterogeneous form of capital with a long-term perspective, influences digital transformation is of great significance. This study uses data from Chinese A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2023 to construct a measure of patient capital at the enterprise level and employs a panel fixed-effects model to empirically test the impact of patient capital on enterprise digital transformation. The results show that patient capital, overall, has a significant inhibitory effect on enterprise digital transformation, a conclusion that remains valid after a series of robustness tests. Mediation mechanism analysis indicates that patient capital may inhibit digital transformation through pathways such as inducing strategic resource misallocation and suppressing organizational dynamic capabilities. Further heterogeneity analysis reveals that this inhibitory effect is particularly strong in technology-intensive enterprises, while it exhibits a weak promoting effect in asset-intensive enterprises, indicating that the impact of patient capital has a significant context-dependent nature. This study provides a new theoretical perspective for understanding the role of the time attribute of capital in corporate strategic change and offers insights for differentiated use of capital by enterprises and precise policy guidance.