The Impact of Digital Finance on High-Tech Enterprise Value

Abstract

As an innovative financial model, digital finance seamlessly integrates the internet and cutting-edge information technologies with traditional financial services, thereby opening a new chapter in the financial sector. Innovation is the key driver of development; therefore, the steady growth of high-tech enterprises—which are innovation-driven—serves as a vital foundation for achieving high-quality economic development in China. Given that high-tech enterprises are characterized by long investment cycles and high levels of risk, stable and sustained financial support is particularly crucial. Based on the market efficiency hypothesis, financial intermediation, information asymmetry, and transaction cost theory, this study examines listed high-tech enterprises from 2011 to 2020. It constructs fixed-effects and mediation models to conduct an empirical analysis of the impact of digital finance on the value of high-tech enterprises and further employs a series of robustness tests to ensure the accuracy of the results. Based on the empirical results, the study concludes that digital finance promotes the value enhancement of high-tech enterprises; digital finance influences technological innovation, thereby enhancing enterprise value; and there are differences in the promotional effect of digital finance on the value of high-tech enterprises between China’s eastern regions and its central and western regions. Based on these findings, the study proposes corresponding policy recommendations: to continue advancing the development of digital finance; to emphasize the role of technological innovation in enterprise growth and economic development; and to prioritize the coordinated development of digital finance across different regions.