Digital transformation and management earnings forecast

This paper conducts an empirical examination using listed companies on China's Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share markets from 2010 to 2020. The findings indicate that digital transformation has a significant positive effect on the quality of management's earnings forecast. Mechanism analysis reveals that this effect is more pronounced in companies with lower internal control indices, higher levels of corporate governance, and higher agency costs. Digital transformation enhances the quality of corporate information disclosure and mitigates information asymmetry, further improving management's earnings forecast level. Through heterogeneity analysis, further research finds that companies lacking a technical background among senior executives, those in less competitive industries, those with poor growth, and non-state-owned enterprises, experience a more significant positive impact on the quality of management earnings forecasts from digital transformation. The conclusions provide new evidence for continuing to advance digital transformation and elucidate the benign cycle mechanism between the capital market and the national economy. This study also proposes new perspectives for the regulation of predictive information disclosure by enterprises.