Corporate digital transformation and trade credit financing

Given the rapid development of the digital economy, clarifying the relationship between corporate digital transformation and trade financing behaviour and identifying the mechanism underlying the effect have become urgent theoretical and practical problems. Therefore, we gather unique data from listed companies in China to investigate how a corporation’s digital transformation strategy affects its trade credit financing. We find that a corporate digital transformation significantly reduces trade credit financing, and that this effect varies greatly among industries and enterprises. Furthermore, we identify asset specificity and bank credit as the mechanisms of this effect. Finally, we verify the effect of digital transformation on two dimensions: corporate innovation and value. Overall, these findings enrich research on digital transformation and trade credit financing, and provide important practical insights for enterprises to efficiently allocate their credit funds and reduce their financial risk through digital transformation.