金融学院知识库

      我国资本市场的日益成熟推动了企业对结构优化、资源整合和战略扩张等方面需求的增长。近年来，随着企业的迅速发展，为了满足其资源和信息需求，企业并购活动频繁，成为优化产业布局和调整市场结构的主要手段。当前，我国正处于产业转型与升级的关键时期，这促使许多企业通过并购来实现产业链上下游的衔接，促进我国并购交易市场的不断扩大。然而，企业并购决策的高风险性直接取决于企业能否获得充足的资金支持以及资金成本的高低，进而直接影响并购交易能否顺利完成，对企业的长短期绩效产生重要影响。数字普惠金融作为我国金融发展的推动力之一，在过去的十余年发展历程中，已经成为中小企业的主要资金来源，是企业成长过程中不可或缺的外部融资渠道。尽管有大量研究探讨了数字普惠金融对企业创新发展的促进作用，但许多学者更关注企业在缓解融资约束后对研发投资决策的影响，却忽略了数字普惠金融对企业并购决策的影响。近年来，数字普惠金融的发展为中小企业带来了稳定的现金流入，增加了企业的可用资金。借款融资也能够促使企业优化内部管理，提高企业的经营质量。此外，数字普惠金融与融资约束之间存在紧密联系，这为研究数字普惠金融对企业并购决策的影响提供了可能性，对数字普惠金融对企业并购影响提供了现实重要意义。然而，当前有关数字普惠金融的研究主要围绕产业转型与经济增长、企业融资约束与发展创新等方面，而鲜有文献对数字普惠金融与企业并购之间的关系进行研究。因此，本研究旨在探讨数字普惠金融对中小上市企业并购的影响。具体而言，研究将关注以下几个问题：数字普惠金融是否能够促进企业进行并购并提升其并购绩效？数字普惠金融对企业并购决策和绩效的影响路径是怎样的？企业技术活跃度、行业竞争程度和产权性质的异质性如何影响数字普惠金融与中小上市企业并购之间的关系？
    为了科学且合乎逻辑地展开研究，本文选用了2011年至2021年间在中国沪深A股市场上市的中小板和创业板企业作为研究对象，对市域数字普惠金融发展与企业并购以及并购绩效之间的影响关系进行了实证检验。研究结果表明，数字普惠金融对企业的并购行为具有显著影响，从而积极推动了企业的并购活动。进一步分析发现，数字普惠金融对企业并购决策及绩效的影响路径主要体现在并购支付方式、企业技术创新以及企业并购溢价的方面。此外，异质性检验结果表明，数字普惠金融对中小型的上市企业的并购决策影响因企业技术活跃度、产权性质以及竞争环境等因素的不同而存在差异。在企业技术活跃度更高、竞争程度高和民营企业中，数字普惠金融对企业并购决策、长短期并购绩效的影响作用更显著。本文运用了工具变量方法来处理内生性问题，并采用了前置一期被解释变量、模型替换、Bootstrap法以及因果中介模型（medsens）等稳健性检验方法，以进一步支持研究结论的可靠性。根据实证结果，可以得出以下结论启示：对于中小企业而言，应当重视利用数字普惠金融渠道提供的支持。数字普惠金融发展通过科学利用信贷融资对企业并购进行促进，有助于降低并购融资成本。理性评估并购行为的风险和收益，抑制过度投资，助于对并购绩效水平的提升。数字普惠金融需要进一步普及数字金融服务，以扩大中小企业客户规模。持续提供资金支持可以通过促进并购来优化资源分配，减少信息不对称。合理评估企业未来的发展趋势，重点关注并购活动对债务杠杆效应的影响，以确保对不同风险项目的合理投资。政府应当加强金融体系和体制改革，完善资本市场运作机制，改善企业融资环境。此外，政府还应加强企业并购的规范管理，拓展融资渠道，规范信息披露要求，提升企业的信用环境，营造透明的金融交易环境。
    本文的贡献主要体现在以下几个方面：首先，深入探讨数字普惠金融这一外部因素与企业并购之间的关系，补充了影响企业并购决策的外部因素文献，为数字普惠金融对企业并购决策及其绩效的影响提供了实证证据。第二，本文对数字普惠金融发展对企业的微观影响进行了深入研究，拓展了对数字普惠金融支持企业经济效果的研究视角。这一研究丰富了对数字普惠金融在企业层面影响的认识，为进一步拓展和实现数字普惠金融发展提供了实证支持。第三，本研究进一步澄清了数字普惠金融在企业并购决策和绩效中的具体作用路径，并对不同情境下的差异效应进行了深入探讨。这为企业实现价值创造型并购提供了新的思路和方法。

The increasing maturity of China's capital market has driven the demand for enterprise optimization, resource integration, and strategic expansion. In recent years, as enterprises have experienced rapid growth, corporate mergers and acquisitions have become frequent to meet their resource and information needs, serving as a primary means to optimize industrial layout and adjust market structures. China's current stage of industrial transformation and upgrading has prompted many enterprises to pursue mergers and acquisitions to achieve upstream and downstream convergence within the industrial chain, thus contributing to the continuous expansion of China's M&A transaction market. The high risk associated with M&A decision-making hinges directly on whether enterprises can secure sufficient financial support and manage the costs of capital effectively. This factor significantly influences the successful completion of M&A transactions and plays a pivotal role in the long-term and short-term performance of enterprises. Digital inclusive finance, as a driving force in China's financial development, has emerged as a crucial source of funding for SMEs over the past decade, serving as an essential external financing channel for enterprise growth. Although numerous studies have explored the facilitative role of digital inclusive finance in fostering the innovative development of enterprises, scholarly attention has predominantly focused on the impact of enterprises' R&D investment decisions post-alleviation of financing constraints. However, little attention has been paid to the influence of digital inclusive finance on enterprises' M&A decisions. In recent years, the development of digital inclusive finance has provided stable cash inflows to SMEs, increasing the available capital for enterprises. Additionally, borrowing financing can prompt enterprises to optimize internal management and improve operational quality. Furthermore, the strong correlation between digital inclusive finance and financing constraints presents an opportunity to examine the impact of digital inclusive finance on corporate M&A decisions, thereby holding significant practical and theoretical implications for the intersection of digital financial inclusion and corporate M&A. Despite the extensive focus on industrial transformation, economic growth, corporate financing constraints, and development innovation in existing research on digital financial inclusion, scant literature has explored the relationship between digital financial inclusion and corporate M&A. Therefore, this study aims to address this gap by investigating the impact of digital financial inclusion on M&A activities among small and medium-sized non-financial enterprises. Specifically, the study will address the following questions: does digital financial inclusion facilitate firms in conducting M&A activities and enhance their M&A performance? What is the pathway through which digital financial inclusion influences firms' M&A decisions and performance? How do the heterogeneity of firms' technological activities, the degree of industry competition, and the nature of property rights affect the relationship between digital financial inclusion and M&A among small and medium-sized non-financial firms?
    To comprehensively explore the aforementioned topics, this study has chosen small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and Growth Enterprise Market (GEM) listed companies in China's Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share markets from 2011 to 2021 as its research subjects. It empirically investigates the nexus between digital financial inclusion and corporate M&A activities, along with their resultant performance outcomes. The findings reveal that digital financial inclusion significantly influences the frequency of corporate M&A transactions, thereby stimulating M&A activities among enterprises. Further scrutiny exposes the pathways through which digital financial inclusion impacts corporate M&A decision-making and performance, chiefly manifested in M&A payment modalities, corporate technological innovation, and M&A premiums. Moreover, heterogeneity testing indicates that the impact of digital financial inclusion on M&A decision-making among small and medium-sized non-financial enterprises varies depending on factors such as technological engagement, property rights disposition, and competitive dynamics. Notably, its effects on M&A decisions and performance, both in the short and long term, are more pronounced among firms exhibiting heightened technological activity, facing intense competition, and operating as private entities. Employing the instrumental variable approach to tackle endogeneity issues, this study supplements its findings with robustness tests, including front-period explanatory variables, model substitution, the Bootstrap method, and the causal mediation model (medsens), thus fortifying the reliability of the research outcomes. Based on the empirical evidence, several pertinent conclusions emerge. For SMEs, strategic emphasis should be placed on leveraging the support afforded by digital financial inclusion channels. Within the digital inclusive finance landscape, judicious utilization of credit financing for corporate M&A endeavors can mitigate the costs associated with M&A financing. Concurrently, enterprises must conduct prudent assessments of the risks and rewards inherent in M&A activities, guarding against excessive investment to enhance the efficacy of M&A ventures. Furthermore, the popularization of digital financial services is imperative to expand the clientele base of SMEs. Sustained financial backing not only facilitates M&A transactions but also fosters resource optimization and diminishes information asymmetries. Additionally, there is a pressing need for enterprises to conduct reasoned evaluations of future economic scenarios, particularly regarding the debt leverage implications arising from M&A pursuits, to ensure judicious investments in high-risk ventures. On the governmental front, efforts should be directed towards bolstering the reform of financial systems and institutions, enhancing the operational mechanisms of capital markets, and refining the financing milieu for enterprises. Additionally, regulatory oversight should be intensified to standardize M&A practices, broaden financing avenues, enforce transparency in information disclosure requirements, fortify the credit environment, and cultivate a transparent financial transaction ecosystem.
    The contribution of this paper manifests primarily in several dimensions: Firstly, it conducts a comprehensive exploration of the relationship between digital financial inclusion and corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&A), with digital financial inclusion being treated as an external factor. This represents a valuable addition to the existing literature concerning external determinants impacting corporate M&A decisions and furnishes empirical evidence regarding the influence of digital financial inclusion on such decisions. Secondly, the paper undertakes an in-depth examination of the micro-level effects of digital financial inclusion development on enterprises, thereby broadening the research scope pertaining to the economic ramifications of digital financial inclusion in bolstering corporate operations. This investigation enriches the comprehension of the enterprise-level impact of digital inclusive finance and furnishes empirical validation for further refining the evolution of digital inclusive finance. Lastly, in addition to the holistic analysis of digital inclusive finance and its implications on corporate M&A decision-making, the paper delineates the pathway through which digital inclusive finance influences corporate M&A decision-making and performance. It also delves into the nuanced effects observed in diverse contexts, thereby presenting novel insights to aid enterprises in achieving value-enhancing M&A transactions.