Bridging social responsibility and grassroots finance: Evaluating the impact of firms’ targeted pairing assistance on county digital financial inclusion

IF 6.3 2区经济学 Q1 BUSINESS, FINANCE

Research in International Business and Finance Pub Date : 2025-02-24 DOI:10.1016/j.ribaf.2025.102839

Zixun Zhou , Xinyu Zhou , Hao Zhong , Xuezhi Zhang

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

This study exploits the unique setting of China’s 2016 mandate requiring firms to disclose their involvement in targeted pairing assistance (TPA) to explore the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices on digital financial inclusion (DFI) at the recipient county level. Using manually collected data, we employ a staggered difference-in-differences approach to examine how firms’ targeted pairing assistance with counties affects DFI. Our results show that firms’ pairing assistance, an innovative CSR practice, can significantly improve DFI in recipient counties. This remains robust after considering two-way fixed effects (TWFE) potential bias, endogeneity issues and robustness checks. Mechanism analysis shows that firms can leverage their financial expertise and CSR experience to broaden DFI coverage, while those with digitalization capabilities further advance the digitalization process. We also uncover pairing firms’ alignment—through industry synergy and regional complementarity—which improves the impact of TPA on DFI. Overall, this paper provides new insights into the social benefits of CSR, shifting the research focus from the focal firm to its impact on beneficiaries.

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来源期刊

Research in International Business and Finance BUSINESS, FINANCE-

CiteScore

11.20

自引率

9.20%

发文量

240

期刊介绍： Research in International Business and Finance (RIBAF) seeks to consolidate its position as a premier scholarly vehicle of academic finance. The Journal publishes high quality, insightful, well-written papers that explore current and new issues in international finance. Papers that foster dialogue, innovation, and intellectual risk-taking in financial studies; as well as shed light on the interaction between finance and broader societal concerns are particularly appreciated. The Journal welcomes submissions that seek to expand the boundaries of academic finance and otherwise challenge the discipline. Papers studying finance using a variety of methodologies; as well as interdisciplinary studies will be considered for publication. Papers that examine topical issues using extensive international data sets are welcome. Single-country studies can also be considered for publication provided that they develop novel methodological and theoretical approaches or fall within the Journal''s priority themes. It is especially important that single-country studies communicate to the reader why the particular chosen country is especially relevant to the issue being investigated. [...] The scope of topics that are most interesting to RIBAF readers include the following: -Financial markets and institutions -Financial practices and sustainability -The impact of national culture on finance -The impact of formal and informal institutions on finance -Privatizations, public financing, and nonprofit issues in finance -Interdisciplinary financial studies -Finance and international development -International financial crises and regulation -Financialization studies -International financial integration and architecture -Behavioral aspects in finance -Consumer finance -Methodologies and conceptualization issues related to finance