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Digital Finance and Corporate Social Responsibility—Empirical Evidence from China

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Advances in Intelligent Systems, Computer Science and Digital Economics IV (CSDEIS 2022)

Abstract

Can the continuous optimization of the digital financial environment motivate enterprises to better fulfill their corporate social responsibilities? Based on the Digital Financial Inclusion Index of Peking University and the data of listed enterprises from 2011 to 2020, this paper empirically examines the impact of the development of digital finance on corporate social responsibility in China and its influencing mechanism. The research conclusion shows that the continuous improvement of digital financial environment promotes enterprises to strengthen the fulfillment of social responsibility, and stimulates the motivation of enterprises to fulfill social responsibility mainly by reducing financing cost. Moreover, through further research, it is found that compared with state-owned enterprises and areas with higher market environment, the development of digital finance in private enterprises and areas with poor market environment can better promote enterprises to fulfill their social responsibilities. The above research conclusions show that the development of digital financial environment can stimulate the enthusiasm of enterprises to fulfill their social responsibilities, but there is still asymmetry.

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Acknowledgments

This project is supported by the National Social Science Foundation Key Projects (20FJYA004).

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Correspondence to Zhihong Zeng .

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Han, Z. et al. (2023). Digital Finance and Corporate Social Responsibility—Empirical Evidence from China. In: Hu, Z., Wang, Y., He, M. (eds) Advances in Intelligent Systems, Computer Science and Digital Economics IV. CSDEIS 2022. Lecture Notes on Data Engineering and Communications Technologies, vol 158. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24475-9_24

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