Linkage Between Inclusive Digital Finance and High-Tech Enterprise Innovation Performance: Role of Debt and Equity Financing

This study investigates the relationship between digital financial inclusion, external financing, and the innovation performance of high-tech enterprises in China. The choice of corporate financing methods is an important part of organizational behavioral psychology, and different financing models will have a certain effect on organizational performance, especially in the digital economy environment. Therefore, based on resource dependence theory and financing constraint theory, the present study utilizes the panel data collected from the China Stock Market & Accounting Research (CSMAR) database from 2011 to 2020 of 112 companies in the Yangtze River Delta region and the “The Peking University Digital Financial Inclusion Index of China (PKU-DFIIC)” released by the Peking University Digital Finance Research Center and Ant Financial Group. The results show that the Digital Financial Inclusion Index (DFIIC) has a significant positive correlation with the innovation performance of high-tech enterprises. The higher the level of debt financing, the stronger the role of digital financial inclusion in promoting innovation performance. Investigating the DFIIC in terms of coverage breadth and usage depth, we find that usage depth does not significantly encourage innovation performance. The effect of the interaction between coverage breadth and external financing is consistent with the results for the DFIIC. The study suggests that equity financing promotes the usage depth of the DFIIC in state-owned enterprises. In contrast, debt financing promotes the coverage breadth of non-state-owned enterprises. Finally, we propose relevant policy recommendations based on the research results. It includes in-depth popularization of inclusive finance in the daily operations of enterprises at the technical level, refinement of external financing policy incentives for enterprises based on the characteristics of ownership, and strengthening the research of technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence (AI), and cloud computing. The paper presents a range of theoretical and practical implications for practitioners and academics relevant to high-tech enterprises.

A Compendium on the Application of Gender Equity Financing & Budgeting in Covid-19 Mitigation and Recovery Processes: Key Lessons for South Africa

The novel coronavirus has been declared a global pandemic that requires global emergency due to its impacts on the global economy and populations. This article delves into the extent to which public finance management responds to gendered implications that emanate from the COVID-19 contagion. The outbreak of diseases affects men and women differently, and in such pandemics, gender inequalities are more pronounced and efforts to reduce gender gaps are usually thwarted by financing and budgeting methods that are gender-neutral. From this standpoint, the article advances the notion that public expenditure initiatives taken to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 must be implemented from a gender lens and that the position of heterogeneous groups in society is considered to subdue further inequalities. The article also seeks to contribute to knowledge on gender-responsive budgeting by moving beyond procedural clarifications to highlight it as a critical element that can be adopted to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19. Using discourse analysis, the study examines the extent to which gender-responsive public expenditure initiatives across the globe can be adopted in the South African context to respond to different needs of men and women amidst COVID-19. Evidence reveals that although the country set aside R500 billion to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic, there are still gaps to align the fiscal commitments to gender equity goals.

Does More Voluntary “Green” Information Disclosure Cut Down the Cost of Equity: Heavy Pollution Industries in China

Focusing on the unique background of the coexistence of mandatory and voluntary disclosure of environmental information by domestic companies in heavy pollution industries for which is lost sight of in the existing literature. The purpose of this paper is to identify, under the premise of compulsory disclosure of environmental information in the financial report and separate environmental report, whether the further voluntary environmental information disclosure in the corporate social responsibility (CSR_E) captures the discount from investors during equity financing. Employing the sample of 4390 China’s A-share listed companies in the heavy pollution industries between 2010 and 2018, we adopt Python to conduct texture analysis and image recognition, applying the fixed effect regression model to text hypothesizes, within the robust analysis, our empirical results show that the CSR disclosure, higher quality of CSR reports, greater extent of CSR_E disclosure including accurate environmental investment information as well as the amount of graphs and texts all have the positive impact on the cost reduction of equity financing. Moreover, the degree of CSR_E disclosure in reducing cost of equity is 30 times that of CSR disclosure, which indicates that voluntary disclosure of environmental information is better to get extra discount of equity financing by satisfying favor of investors instead of keep silent on the basis of compulsory disclosure of environmental information. In addition, the charts have specific positive effects that’s not available for the text, the accurate quantitative environmental information creates more values for those enterprises disclosed. This study offers guidelines for regulatory authorities to explore the coordination effect of mandatory and voluntary disclosure policies, and achieve environmental governance and sustainable development of enterprises by improving their corporate governance.

The Impact of Employee Stock Ownership Plan on the Cost of Equity Capital: Evidence from China

Due to the immaturity of bond market and the defects of internal governance structure, Chinese-listed companies have a strong preference for equity financing. How to reduce the cost of equity capital is particularly important for Chinese-listed companies. As an equity incentive system, employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) can reduce the agency conflicts among shareholders, executives, and employees to some extent. These reduced conflicts will, in an efficient capital market, be reflected in a lower cost of equity capital. This paper investigates whether the implementation of ESOP in a new era in China affects the cost of equity capital and further explores whether the impact of ESOP on the cost of equity capital is affected by the ownership nature, the firm size, and the contract design of ESOP. The results show that the implementation of ESOP reduces the cost of equity capital of enterprises. Compared with state-owned enterprises and large enterprises, the implementation of ESOP is more likely to reduce the cost of equity capital in non-state-owned enterprises and small enterprises. Furthermore, the reduction effect of ESOP on the cost of equity capital is influenced by the contract design of ESOP. This study not only enriches the literature on the relationship between employee stock ownership and the cost of equity capital but also provides a new idea for listed companies to reduce the cost of equity financing.

Policy Uncertainty and Textual Disclosure

We study how policy uncertainty influences textual disclosure in the U.S. from 1996 to 2015. Consistent with incentives for voluntary disclosure, we find that policy uncertainty increases textual disclosure quantity, as evident in disclosure length, but lowers textual readability and increases the tone of uncertainty and negativity. We also document that the negative impact on readability subsides when firms are subject to tough external monitoring. Finally, we provide evidence implying that investors perceive such disclosure to be valuable, as evident in cheaper equity financing costs under economic policy uncertainty.

Solvency Risk and Corporate Performance: A Case Study on European Retailers

This paper proposes a new approach toward understanding the financial performance dynamics in the EU retail sector (pre-pandemic); we focus on the connection between indebtedness and solvency risk and other areas of corporate performance (e.g., liquidity, assets efficiency, and profitability). Its contribution resides in identifying the drivers behind solvency risk in a sector that went through significant transformations in recent decades, as well as the links between the various areas of performance of retailers, and their impacts on solvency risk, using the machine-learning random forest methodology. The results indicate a declining trend for solvency risk of EU food retailers after the global financial crisis and up until the beginning of the pandemic, which may reflect their maturity on the market, but also an adjustment to legal changes in the EU, meant to equalize the tax advantages of debt versus equity financing. Solvency risk accompanied by liquidity risk is a mark of the retail sector, and our results indicate that the most critical trade that EU retailers face is between solvency risk and liquidity, but is fading over time. The volatility of liquidity levels is an important predictor of solvency risk; hence, sustaining a stable and good level of liquidity supports lower risks of financial distress, and may mitigate the shock impacts for EU retailers. A higher solvency risk was accompanied by increased efficiency of asset use, but reduced profitability levels, which led to higher returns available to shareholders for high solvency risk retailers. Overall, retailers should focus on operational performance evidenced by financial indicator levels than on the volatility of these indicators as predictors of solvency risk.

Inclusive Digital Finance, External Financing, and High-Tech Enterprise Innovation Performance

This study investigates the relationship between digital financial inclusion, external financing, and the innovation performance of high-tech enterprises in China. The present analysis utilizes the panel data from 2011 to 2018 of 114 companies in the Yangtze River Delta region and the "The Peking University Digital Financial Inclusion Index of China” (PKU-DFIIC) released by the Peking University Digital Finance Research Center and Ant Financial Group. The results show that the Digital Financial Inclusion Index (DFIIC) has a significant positive correlation with the innovation performance of high-tech enterprises.The higher the level of debt financing, the stronger the role of digital financial inclusion in promoting innovation performance. Investigating the DFIIC in terms ofcoverage breadth and usage depth, we find that usage depth does not significantly encourage innovation performance. The effect of the interaction between coverage breadth and external financing is consistent with the results for the DFIIC.The study suggest that equity financing promotes the usage depth of the DFIIC in state-owned enterprises. In contrast, debt financing promotes the coverage breadth of non-state-owned enterprises. Finally, we propose relevant policy recommendations based on the research results. It includes in-depth popularization of inclusive finance in the daily operations of enterprises at the technical level, refinement of external financing policy incentives for enterprises based on the characteristics of ownership, and strengthening of the research of technologies such as big data, Al, and cloud computing.

Signaling Information Management in Entrepreneurial Firms’ Financing Acquisition

Research has identified the significant effect of new ventures’ signaling information management on their ability to secure private equity financing. This study adopts an integrated signaling and screening perspective to investigate investors’ differing perceptions of signals from ventures, across early financing stages. It proposes a three-step interpretation process. Based on an inductive multiple case study of signaler‒receiver dyads, it finds that to reach a financing decision, angel investors extract a characteristic signal as the fundamental type, orchestrate an acting signal as a supplementary type, and scrutinize the consistency between both. However, venture capital investors extract an action signal as the fundamental type, orchestrate characteristic and endorsement signals as complementary types, and scrutinize the consistency among all three types.

Research on the Impact of Timing Financing on M&A Performance: The Intermediary Effect Based on Financing Efficiency

Timing financing theory holds that when listed companies are overvalued, they will increase equity financing. Different from previous studies, this study explores the mechanism of timing financing theory in China from the perspective of financing efficiency. Through the empirical study of M & A cases of Listed Companies in China from 2007 to 2018, it is found that the timing financing behavior that increasing equity financing when overvalued reduces the positive impact of equity financing on M & A performance. Further research found that the mediating effect of the financing efficiency exists, that is, the timing financing behavior does no increase listed companies’ financing efficiency, so it can not help listed companies create value through M & A.

Valuation of short-lived firms following waves of new listings

PurposeThe survival rate of newly listed firms is low, and there is evidence of a surge of poorly performing new listed firms leading up to the crash of the dot.com bubble. The author investigates this phenomenon and analyzes investors' ability to understand the quality of accounting information and to adjust their expectations.Design/methodology/approachThe author employs the dividend discount model in conjunction with clean surplus accounting discussed by Ohlson (1995) to compare the value relevance of earnings and research and development (R&D) expenditures for short and longer listed National Association of Security Dealer Automated Quotations (NASDAQ) firms between 1980 and 2014. The author also uses univariate tests and logistic regression to analyze both recently listed and short-listed firms. In this analysis, the author compares the differences in investors' expectations for the first five years for both types of firms.FindingsThe author provides convincing evidence that markets clearly placed lower valuation weights on accounting earnings and R&D expenditures for short-listed firms on NASDAQ. Market participants originally had high expectations for these ventures. But, they gradually understood the lower quality of accounting information and adjusted their expectations downward.Originality/valueThe author’s results show that optimistic expectations along with easy equity financing created a surge of new listings. My analysis of the interplay between the quality of accounting information and investors' expectations indicates a negative spillover effect where investors are overoptimistic about firms that rode on waves of new listings backed by liberal financing. The author shows that analysis of Tobin's Q and negative earnings can separate ill-prepared from longer-listed firms.