The Impact of Fintech on China's Corporate Financing Constraints - Analysis based on the perspective of enterprise life cycle

Abstract

SMEs, as the cornerstone of the real economy, face greater financing difficulties in accessing traditional financial services, which constrains their further development. In recent years, with the rapid development of the digital economy and the continuous innovation of financial technology, new ideas and solutions have been provided to solve the financing difficulties of SMEs. This paper uses the financial and related data of A-share listed companies from 2010-2022 to construct a regression model and a moderating effect model, which are used to analyse the impact of fintech on financing constraints and the moderating role of life cycle in it. The findings of the study show that, on the whole, fintech significantly alleviates the financing constraints of Chinese enterprises, and the degree of financing constraints varies with the life cycle of the enterprises; further analysis of the moderating effect reveals that the life cycle of the enterprises in the growth and decline periods will play a positive moderating role in the financing constraints of the enterprises affected by fintech. After analysing the heterogeneity, it is found that the development of fintech in the eastern region has a stronger role in alleviating the financing constraints of SMEs, and the role of fintech in alleviating the financing constraints of enterprises with a low degree of science and technology is better than that of enterprises with high technology.