Executive financial background and corporate digital transformation: empirical evidence from China

This paper employs panel data from Chinese A-share listed firms between 2008 and 2022 to quantitatively assess the fixed effects of executive financial backgrounds on corporate digital transformation across multiple dimensions, as well as the mediating effect of corporate financialisation and the threshold effect of green technology innovation. The marginal contribution of this paper lies in analysing the mechanism and impact of executives' financial background on corporate digital transformation, expanding the boundaries of research in this field, increasing the dimensions of research in this field, and revealing the current direction of digital transformation of Chinese listed companies. The study demonstrates that (1) The larger the proportion of executives with a financial background, the greater the promotion effect on corporate digital transformation, and this conclusion is robust. (2) Corporate financialisation plays a mediating role in the influence of executive financial background on corporate digital transformation, which manifests as a masking effect. (3) Green technology innovation plays a threshold effect in the influence of executive financial background on corporate digital transformation, showing the nonlinear characteristic of increasing marginal effect. In light of the aforementioned considerations, this paper proposes a series of targeted recommendations.