How does FinTech influence enterprises’ digital transformation? —A perspective based on executive backgrounds

The rapid evolution of FinTech serves as a critical catalyst for enterprises’ digital transformation by providing essential financial support. Executives, as strategic decision-makers, significantly shape enterprises’ responses to technological advances. However, the role of executive backgrounds in influencing the relationship between FinTech and digital transformation remains unclear. This study constructs a city-level FinTech index using web-scraped data from the ‘Tianyancha’ platform by analysing FinTech-related keywords and calculating the density of FinTech enterprises in each city. Text mining techniques extract digital transformation-related keywords from enterprise annual reports to create a comprehensive indicator of digital transformation. Using a fixed-effects model on a panel dataset of 2923 listed Chinese manufacturing enterprises (2010–2022), the study finds that (1) FinTech significantly promotes enterprises’ digital transformation; (2) executives with academic or R&D backgrounds enhance this positive effect; and (3) FinTech’s impact is stronger in northern regions, non-state-owned enterprises, high-tech enterprises, and FinTech pilot cities. This research enriches the understanding of executive heterogeneity in leveraging FinTech for digital transformation and offers valuable implications for enterprise practices and policymaking.