How digital transformation affects the cost of equity capital: the role of information disclosure quality and stock liquidity

Abstract To achieve high-quality development, a critical question needs to be addressed: can enterprise digital transformation effectively alleviate enterprise financing problems by reducing the cost of equity capital? This study uses the text mining to analyze the financial statement from Chinese companies listed on Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share markets between 2011 and 2021, in order to define the digital transformation. Further, this study empirically tests the influencing mechanisms of digital transformation on the cost of equity capital, considering the perspectives of information disclosure quality and stock liquidity. The conclusions are as follows: (i) enterprise digital transformation can significantly reduce the cost of equity capital, and under the control of other variables, the cost of equity financing will be reduced by 8.8% for every 1% increase in digital transformation; (ii) digital transformation not only leads to a decrease in the cost of equity capital through the two independent mediation channels, improving information disclosure and accelerating stock liquidity, but also reduces the cost of equity capital through the chain mediation channel from information disclosure quality to stock liquidity; (iii) heterogeneity analysis finds that the effect of digital information on the cost of equity capital is more pronounced in larger, non-state-owned, non-high-tech and eastern enterprises. This study enriches the research of the influence of digital transformation on external financing, and plays an important role in the promotion of enterprise digital transformation and the formulation of targeted policies.