Can digitalization improve enterprise sustainability?–Evidence from the resilience perspective of Chinese firms

Abstract

The implementation of digitalization has gradually become an important strategy for many enterprises to improve sustainability. The text mining and principal component analysis methods were used to measure enterprise digitalization and the level of enterprise resilience from 2011 to 2019, respectively. This study then explored the impact of digitalization on enterprise resilience. This research comes to three conclusions. (1) Digitalization can improve enterprise resilience significantly, but beyond the threshold, it inhibits enterprise resilience. In other words, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between digitalization and enterprise resilience, and the steepness of this inverted U-shape shows a marginal increasing trend. (2) Notably, Resource allocation efficiency and information accessibility play a mediating effect in the impact of digitization on enterprise resilience. Further analysis found that the improvement of enterprise resilience is not only conducive to the growth of total factor productivity but also conducive to the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry. (3) The influence of digitization on enterprise resilience in areas with a high level of marketization, labor-and technology-intensive industries, and eastern and coastal areas is more obvious. The impact of digitization on the sustainable development of small and medium-sized enterprises, and private and foreign-funded enterprises is more significant. Finally, corresponding policy suggestions are proposed.