The Impact of Supply Chain Digitalization on Financing Efficiency of Small and Medium Enterprises: A Perspective of Supply Chain Resilience

Abstract

Unlocking supply-demand bottlenecks, extending chains, supplementing links, and strengthening chains to enhance supply chain resilience are key to improving financing efficiency for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This paper, based on panel data of all SMEs listed on the Small and Medium Enterprise Board and the Growth Enterprise Board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2015 to 2022, constructs a double-difference model to explore, for the first time, the impact of supply chain digitalization on the financing efficiency of SMEs and its transmission mechanism from the perspective of supply chain resilience. The research findings indicate that supply chain digitalization significantly enhances the financing efficiency of SMEs. Mechanism analysis suggests that supply chain resilience is the key transmission path through which supply chain digitalization enhances financing efficiency for SMEs. By optimizing supply chain dynamic capabilities, including proactive capability, reactive capability, and quality capability, to promote key resource integration such as cost control, fund circulation, and innovation collaboration, SMEs’ financing efficiency is empowered. Further analysis reveals that state-owned enterprises and SMEs in the central and eastern regions of China experience more significant improvements in financing efficiency. The conclusions of this paper provide policy implications for government initiatives to promote supply chain digitalization, ensure industrial chain security, and formulate differentiated policies targeting weak links in the process of supply chain digitalization.