Digital transformation, customer stability and innovation

IF 7.4 2区经济学 Q1 BUSINESS, FINANCE

Finance Research Letters Pub Date : 2025-07-13 DOI:10.1016/j.frl.2025.107981

Xuqian Wen , Lin Xiao

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Abstract

In the context of the increasingly refined and specialized division of labor in the manufacturing industry, firms’ competitive intensity has shifted toward providing customized products and differentiated services through innovation. Digital transformation potentially fosters innovation in a firm as it reshapes its existing management model, ushering in a new growth engine. Therefore, this study explores whether digital transformation can enhance firms’ innovativeness and the inherent mechanisms underlying this process. Chinese listed manufacturing firms from 2013 to 2021 are taken as the research sample. The empirical results show that digital transformation not only increases innovation investment but also improves innovation efficiency. Notably, customer stability plays a crucial mediating role between digital transformation and innovation. Further analysis reveals that the impact of digital transformation on firm innovation is more pronounced in firms with weaker market competition, and the mediating effect of customer stability is significant only in these firms. Our findings highlight the critical role of digital transformation in driving corporate innovation and provide new insights for analyzing the governance mechanisms of supply chain management.

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数字化转型，客户稳定性和创新

在制造业分工日益精细化和专业化的背景下，企业的竞争强度已转向通过创新提供定制化产品和差异化服务。数字化转型可能会促进企业的创新，因为它重塑了现有的管理模式，带来了新的增长引擎。因此，本研究探讨了数字化转型是否能增强企业的创新能力，以及这一过程的内在机制。以2013 - 2021年中国制造业上市公司为研究样本。实证结果表明，数字化转型不仅增加了创新投入，而且提高了创新效率。值得注意的是，客户稳定性在数字化转型和创新之间起着至关重要的中介作用。进一步分析发现，数字化转型对企业创新的影响在市场竞争较弱的企业中更为明显，而客户稳定性的中介作用仅在这些企业中显著。我们的研究结果强调了数字化转型在推动企业创新方面的关键作用，并为分析供应链管理的治理机制提供了新的见解。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Finance Research Letters BUSINESS, FINANCE-

CiteScore

11.10

自引率

14.40%

发文量

863

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