Can digital financial inclusion effectively stimulate technological Innovation of agricultural enterprises?—A case study on China

Abstract

Digital financial inclusion is a new product of traditional finance through digitalization and technologization. This paper uses the data of China's A-share listed agricultural companies from 2015 to 2020 to explore the impact of digital financial inclusion on the technological innovation efficiency of agricultural enterprises and answer the question of whether digital financial inclusion can solve the financing problems of agricultural enterprises and provide them the necessary support to stimulate their technological innovation effectively. Firstly, the data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to measure the technological innovation efficiency of agricultural enterprises, and the Tobit model is adopted to analyze the impact of digital financial inclusion on the technological innovation efficiency of agricultural enterprises. Secondly, the influence mechanism of digital financial inclusion is explored. Thirdly, the heterogeneity test is conducted for enterprises with different characteristics. Finally, we discuss how the marginal effect of digital financial inclusion changes. The empirical results show that: first, digital financial inclusion has a significant promoting effect on the technological innovation efficiency of agricultural enterprises, and the impact is prominent in a wide range; second, digital financial inclusion can promote technological innovation through the mechanism of enterprise digitization, financing constraints and market efficiency; third, non-state-owned enterprises with high financing level are more suitable to encourage innovation through digital financial inclusion; fourth, the promoting effect of digital financial inclusion has structural characteristics, and it shows an increasing trend with the improvement of enterprise innovation level.