营商环境不确定性对企业数字化转型的影响: 革故鼎新还是畏葸不前?

In recent years, a large number of new digital information technologies have appeared in the world. The role of the digital economy as a “stabilizer” and “accelerator” for the development of the real economy has become increasingly prominent. Digital transformation has become a key force in reshaping the global resource structure and changing the world economic pattern. Especially in the current era, the international political, economic and scientific and technological landscape is constantly changing. How to grasp the new situation, strengthen technology leadership, improve digital governance and establish new development advantages have become a severe test for each economic entity. However, the relationship between business uncertainty and digitization is still inconclusive. The unpredictability of the environment has led enterprises to rely more on digitization. Enterprises are eager to carry out comprehensive digital construction at the fastest speed to improve their competitive position. Companies are trying to be a dark horse in the face of environmental shocks. However, in practice, it is found that the situation, ecological environment, capital, technology and other constraints lead to the inability of enterprises in the digital construction. Therefore, the study of how the uncertainty of the business environment affects the digital transformation of enterprises has become the focus of this paper. Specifically, through the analysis of resource-based theory, agency theory, real option theory, strategic alignment theory and existing research results, the main hypothesis and alternative hypothesis of the paper are proposed. The empirical part uses the data of China's A-share listed companies from 2004 to 2021 to test the impact of business environment uncertainty on enterprises' digital transformation. The results show that uncertainty in the business environment will inhibit enterprises' digital transformation. However, this inhibitory effect will weaken as the uncertainty of the business environment increases. The influence of business environment uncertainty on digital input and results conforms to the U-shaped relationship, but it only inhibits the efficiency of digital output. Uncertainty in the business environment inhibits digital transformation through financing constraints, technical talent drain, and management myopia. Accordingly, this inhibition can be alleviated by promoting market-oriented development, promoting the construction of digital organizations and increasing the proportion of management ownership. The inhibiting effect of business environment uncertainty on enterprises' digital transformation is more significant in enterprises with overseas management background, non-IT management background and higher average age of management. Moreover, this dampening effect ultimately leads to a decline in aggregate productivity and firm value. Compared with previous literatures, the conclusions enrich the research on the impact of business environment on enterprises' digital transformation. The internal logic and economic consequences of business environment uncertainty inhibiting enterprises' digital transformation are deeply discussed. The corresponding mitigation mechanism is studied according to different influence channels. The heterogeneity is analyzed based on the characteristics of management structure. The relationship between business environment uncertainty and enterprise digital transformation is analyzed comprehensively. At the same time, it provides new empirical evidence for the development of China's digital economy and the high-quality development of the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]