This paper empirically examines the impact of core competence on corporate fraud by constructing the measurement index of core competence through textual analysis, using Chinese A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2022 as a research sample. It is found that: core competence can effectively reduce corporate fraud, and the conclusions still hold under a series of robustness tests. The mechanism test reveals that core competence can reduce performance pressure, improve internal control quality and enhance external attention, thereby reducing the motivation and opportunity for misconduct and binding corporate fraud. Further study finds that: the binding effect of core competence on corporate fraud is more significant in non-state-owned enterprises and enterprises in a well-established external legal environment. Core competence is more significant in reducing disclosure violations and operational violations compared to executive violations. The findings of this paper not only enrich the literature on the economic consequences of core competence and the factors influencing corporate fraud, but also have significant theoretical and practical implications for how to avoid corporate fraud.

Using data from a sample of Chinese listed companies spanning 2014 to 2023, we construct an evaluation index of corporate digitalization using textual analysis and test the impact of digitalization on firms' employee stock ownership plans ("ESOPs"). We find that firm digitalization predicts ESOP adoption. Mechanism tests show that the probability of implementing an ESOP increases in digital corporations that emphasize intellectual capital. In additional tests, we find that firms in the process of digitalization with lower salary levels have a higher probability of implementing ESOPs, and ESOPs lead to higher firm value and levels of innovation. This study highlights the role of employee motivation in the digital economy, providing insights into how firms strategically utilize ESOPs to manage intellectual capital and increase firm value.

We examine the influence of firms' core competencies on earnings management by measuring core competencies through textual analysis. The empirical results, based on the data of Chinese A-share listed firms over 2012-2020, indicate that more competitive firms have lower discretionary accruals. We find two potential channels: firm performance and financing needs. The negative correlation between core competencies and earnings management is strengthened within firms with a prospector strategy, with fewer external financing opportunities, and with less severe tunnelling. This study enriches the literature on the economic consequences of firms' core competencies and the relationship between strategic management and accounting.

Brand competitiveness is a significant indicator of high-quality development of enterprises and a pivotal factor in an enterprise’s pursuit of long-term growth. Using panel data on Chinese A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2021, this study constructs a measure of brand competitiveness using textual analysis and empirically examines its effect on corporate investment efficiency. The results reveal that brand competitiveness mitigates inefficient investment through two distinct channels: the reputation constraint mechanism and the information acquisition mechanism. These effects are more pronounced in environments characterized by intense market competition, advanced managerial cognition, and sustained brand competitiveness. Additionally, brand competitiveness is shown to significantly enhance total factor productivity, thereby supporting high quality development of enterprises. The findings offer practical implications for enterprises aiming to strengthen brand competitiveness and advance toward high-quality development.

At present, with the increasing digital competition among enterprises, it is of great importance for enterprises to promote digital transformation and achieve sustainable development. Taking China's A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2021 as samples, this paper performs empirical tests in order to explore the impact of enterprise digital transformation on the comparability of accounting information and its mechanism. The results show that digital transformation has significantly enhanced accounting information comparability, which is still significant after a series of robustness tests. The mechanism test shows that the improvement of the comparability of accounting information by the digital transformation is mainly achieved by alleviating earnings management and agency problem. Further research shows that when the degree of market competition or transparency is high, the role of enterprise digital transformation in enhancing the comparability is more significant. This paper enriches the literature on the economic consequences of digital transformation and the factors affecting the comparability of accounting information. At the same time, the conclusions of this paper confirm the governance effect of enterprise digital transformation, provide evidential support for investors to improve decision-making efficiency, and urge enterprises to accelerate digital transformation.

Using a sample of China's A-share listed firms from 2016 to 2021, this study empirically examines the influence of digital transformation on the pay gap within firms. Based on the optimal salary contract theory, we posit that digital transformation widens within-firm pay gap. Conversely, based on the managerial power theory, we posit the competing hypothesis that digital transformation is negatively correlated with the pay gap. Our findings support the optimal salary contract theory, suggesting that digital transformation is positively related to the pay gap, as evidenced by an increase in executive compensation rather than a decrease in the pay of rank-and-file employees. These findings are robust to various checks, including alternative measurements, quantile regression model, Heckman selection model, and IV-2SLS method. Further tests reveal that the positive relationship between digital transformation and the pay gap is more pronounced in labor-intensive enterprises and those with lower risk-taking abilities. This study argues that a widening internal pay gap in the digital era is a rational market choice, as evidenced by the positive impact of the within-firm pay gap resulting from digital transformation on firms' performance. This study extends our understanding of the impact of digital transformation and enriches the literature on compensation contract design.

This article constructs the measurement index of core competence by text analysis method and empirically tests its impact on the cost of debt. We find that the stronger the core competence, the lower the cost of debt. The mechanism test shows that the impact of core competence on the cost of debt is mainly realized by reducing the default risk and alleviating the agency problem. In further research, after distinguishing the types of core competence, we find that core competence of resources, especially the tangible resources, is the key factor to effectively reduce the cost of debt; after distinguishing the nature of property rights, we find that the impact of core competence on the cost of debt mainly plays a role in non-state-owned enterprises with strong financing constraints. This article not only enriches the literature on the economic consequences of core competence and factors affecting the cost of debt, but also provides scientific support for the government and other relevant department to alleviate the problem of financing difficulties and financing expensive.

基于2007—2021年中国A股上市公司的数据,实证检验核心竞争力信息披露对分析师关注的影响.研究发现,企业核心竞争力信息披露与分析师关注呈正相关关系.机制检验表明,核心竞争力信息披露通过降低分析师获取信息的成本,提高了分析师关注度.进一步研究发现:技术和品牌类核心竞争力信息更能吸引分析师关注;核心竞争力信息披露对分析师关注的正向影响,在公司治理水平更高的样本中更显著;核心竞争力信息披露同时还能够降低分析师盈余预测偏差和盈余预测分歧度.研究结论有助于丰富核心竞争力信息披露经济后果和分析师关注影响因素方面的文献,并对监管部门进一步完善相关信息披露要求具有一定借鉴作用.

Research background: The rapid development of digital economy has set off a new wave of enterprise reform. Developing the digital economy is not only an urgent requirement of the current situation, but also an important way to meet the people's better life. Purpose of the article: This paper attempts to reveal the important role of the development of digital technology on the debt financing cost of micro enterprises, and provide micro evidence for the integration of digital economy and real economy. At the same time, this paper wants to provide relevant guidance for formulating digital related policies and reducing the financing cost of the real economy. Methods: Taking China?s A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2020 as a sample, this paper empirically tests the impact of enterprise digital transformation on debt financing cost and its mechanism. In the robustness test, this paper uses the measures of changing independent variables and dependent variables, instrumental variable method and quantile regression method. In the mechanism test, this paper uses the intermediary effect model. In the further study, this paper uses the method of group regression. Findings & value added: The study finds that the digital transformation of enterprises significantly reduces the cost of debt financing. Mechanism tests show that the role of enterprise digital transformation in reducing debt financing costs is mainly realized by reducing information asymmetry and alleviating agency problems. Further tests show that the relationship between enterprise digital transformation and debt financing cost is affected by the degree of market competition, whether it is a high-tech enterprise and audit quality. When the degree of market competition is high, the enterprise is a high-tech one, or it is audited by the four major international accounting firms, the effect of enterprise digital transformation on the reduction of debt financing cost is more significant. The method used in this paper is also applicable to the study of other economic management problems. This paper proves a positive significance of digital transformation, which is conducive to promoting the digital transformation of enterprises. Especially for those enterprises in non-high-tech industries, they should speed up the pace. At the same time, this paper has a certain guiding role for the introduction and implementation of policies to encourage digital transformation.

Taking the non-financial companies listed on the Chinese capital market in China from 2007 to 2015 as samples combined with the macroeconomic environment faced by enterprises, this paper explores the impacts and functional mechanism of strategic differences on debt financing cost under different levels of industrial policy support. The results show that (1) strategic differences increase the debt financing cost of enterprises, and further research finds that the quality of accounting information, internal controls, and financing constraints play a mediating role in it and (2) the support of industrial policy weakens the impact of strategic differences on the debt financing cost of enterprises, with this phenomenon more apparent in the state-owned, large-scale, and lower-growth enterprises. This paper complements and improves on the related research on the factors that affect debt financing cost and the economic consequences of strategic differences. At the same time, it also provides enlightenment for enterprises to make strategic choices and optimize the allocation of credit resources under the support of different macroeconomic policies.

Research background: In the digital era, digital transformation has become a strategic impera-tive for leadership agenda. Many firms have accelerated their pace in digital transformation to improve their performance and competitiveness. Despite increasing attention in the literature on the role of digital transformation in firms' operations, understanding the effect of digital trans-formation on corporate finance remains limited. This study focuses on cash holdings, which are essential for firms to survive and thrive.Purpose of the article: The aim of this paper is to examine the critical role of digital transfor-mation on the cash holdings of listed firms in China and provide micro evidence regarding the economic consequences of the digital economy from firm level. This study also aims to deepen our understanding of the influence of digital transformation on firms' operation and financial policy. Additionally, this paper attempts to provide relevant guidance for implementing policies to promote digital transformation and devise corresponding cash holding strategies.Methods: The text analysis method is used to measure the degree of digital transformation of China's A-share listed companies. The sample covers 19,337 observations from 2007-2020. A multiple regression model with firm and year fixed effect is developed to investigate the rela-tionship between digital transformation and corporate cash holdings. In the robustness test, this paper substitutes the independent and dependent variables, and adopts instrumental variable estimation method. In the mechanism test, this paper uses the sub-sample regression method in the mechanism test.Findings & value added: This study reveals that digital transformation can significantly reduce corporate cash holdings by alleviating the precautionary motive, agency motive and transaction motive of cash holdings. Further analysis shows that the negative effect of digital transformation on cash holdings is more profound in high-tech firms and non-state-owned enterprises. The meth-odology applied in this paper can be used in other economic research of firms. This study pro-vides insights into the effects of digital transformation on corporate financial policy. This pro-vides a solution for reducing firms' cash holdings. This study also deepens the understanding of digital transformation from a corporate perspective.

提升企业核心竞争力是中国经济实现高质量发展的必然要求.近年来,企业信息使用者对核心竞争力等前瞻性信息的需求越来越强烈,据此本文通过文本分析法总结了我国上市公司核心竞争力信息披露现状及存在的问题.研究发现,自2012年证监会要求强制披露核心竞争力信息以来,上市公司核心竞争力信息披露呈现披露字数逐年增加、内容日趋丰富等特点,整体上值得肯定;但仍有少部分公司存在披露信息质量不高等问题.基于此,本文构建了中国上市公司年报核心竞争力披露概念框架,并在此基础上提出了改进建议,可供各方参考借鉴.本文不仅在理论上丰富了企业非结构化信息披露的规范性研究,而且也有利于企业信息披露实践的发展.

Core competence is the key factor in the competitiveness of enterprises. This study examines whether enterprises with stronger core competence have the ability and motivation to fulfill more corporate social responsibilities. Taking the non-financial companies listed in the A-share market in China from 2010 to 2019 as the research samples, this paper constructs the measurement index of core competence by text analysis method and empirically tests the impact of core competence on corporate social responsibility. We find that the stronger the core competence is, the higher the corporate social responsibility will be, which means core competence can significantly improve corporate social responsibility. This conclusion remains significant after a series of robustness tests. The mechanism test shows that the impact of core competence on corporate social responsibility is realized by enhancing financial strength and increasing external attention. Further research shows that the relationship between core competence and corporate social responsibility are affected by the nature of the enterprise and the degree of market competition. When the enterprise is a non-state-owned enterprise or the industry competition is more intense, the influence of core competence on corporate social responsibility is stronger. This paper reveals the important impact of core competence on corporate social responsibility, which not only enriches the literature on the economic consequences of core competence and the influencing factors of corporate social responsibility but also has a certain practical significance for how to improve corporate social responsibility.

This paper constructs the measurement index of core competence by text analysis method and empirically tests the influence of core competence on enterprise capital structure. We find that the stronger the core competence is, the lower the asset-liability ratio will be, which means core competence can help enterprises to deleverage. The mechanism test finds that the influence of core competence on enterprise capital structure is realized by enhancing profitability and increasing internal free cash flow, which supports the pecking order theory. Further research shows that (1) the influence of core competence on enterprise capital structure mainly plays a role in enterprises with high level of debt, indicating that core competence can play a positive role and effectively reduce the leverage ratio of high-leverage enterprises, and (2) the core competence can effectively reduce the leverage ratio of both state-owned enterprises and non-state-owned enterprises, indicating that core competence can play a positive role and achieve a full deleveraging. This paper clarifies the mechanism of core competence on enterprise capital structure, enriches the literature on the economic consequences of core competence and factors affecting enterprise capital structure, and provides scientific support for governments at all levels to implement the structural deleveraging policy accurately.

采用文本分析方法构建了企业核心竞争力评价指标,在此基础上实证检验了核心竞争力对企业业绩的影响.研究发现:核心竞争力越强,企业业绩表现越好,该结论在一系列稳健性检验下仍然成立.结合杜邦分析法模型研究发现,核心竞争力对企业业绩的影响主要通过提升销售净利率来实现的;区分核心竞争力种类后发现,品牌竞争力和技术竞争力对企业业绩的促进作用最大.进一步研究发现,外部竞争程度、内部公司治理及产权性质对核心竞争力与公司业绩之间的关系具有显著调节作用;当企业外部环境竞争越激烈,公司治理水平越好,企业产权性质为非国有时,核心竞争力对企业业绩的影响越大.研究为如何衡量核心竞争力提供了参考指标,丰富了核心竞争力经济后果以及企业业绩影响因素方面的文献,为管理层在竞争环境中如何促进企业发展提供了有益借鉴.

This paper constructs the measurement index of core competence by text analysis method and empirically tests the impact of core competence on stock price synchronicity. We find that the stronger the core competence, the lower the stock price synchronicity, and mechanism test shows that core competence reduces the stock price synchronicity by enhancing the transparency of corporate information, which is still valid under a series of robustness tests. Further research shows that:(1) when the corporate governance environment is poor (higher level of internal earnings management, lower quality of accounting information, greater separation of ownership and control, lower shareholding ratio of external institutional investors, weaker product market competition, less media attention), the core competence has a more significant effect on the decline of stock price synchronization; (2)vertically, the dynamic improvement of core competence in the time dimension can play a role in stabilizing stock price synchronization; (3)after distinguishing the types of core competence, we find that the core competence related to information disclosure is more helpful to reduce the stock price synchronization; (4)after the CSRC forces listed companies to disclose the core competence information in the annual report, the core competence plays a stronger role in reducing the stock price synchronization. This study reveals the important role of core competence in reducing stock price synchronization. It not only enriches the relevant literature of core competence and stock price synchronization, but also has important practical significance for the government and regulatory departments to improve the efficiency of capital market allocation.

通过文本分析法构建企业核心竞争力的度量指标,实证检验企业核心竞争力对供应链融资的影响.研究发现,核心竞争力越强,企业为供应链上下游企业提供的商业信用支持净额越高,该结论在一系列稳健性检验下仍然成立.机制检验表明,与"下游客户"的合作粘性以及企业的融资约束是核心竞争力影响商业信用支持净额的两个途径.进一步研究表明,核心竞争力与商业信用支持净额的关系受市场竞争程度和货币政策松紧的影响,当企业面临的竞争越激烈时,企业越有动力为供应链上下游企业提供商业信用;当货币政策宽松时,企业越有能力为供应链上下游企业提供商业信用.

作为企业持续竞争优势的源泉,核心竞争力不仅代表了企业当前的盈利能力,也预示了企业未来的发展经营情况,对于审计师评估企业的重大错报风险以及经营风险具有重要的参考价值.本研究利用文本分析法构建了企业核心竞争力的度量指标,实证检验了核心竞争力对于审计师决策的影响.研究发现,企业核心竞争力越强时,其获得非标准审计意见的概率越低,审计费用也越低;相较于能力型核心竞争力,资源型核心竞争力对于审计师决策的影响效果更强.进一步分析发现,核心竞争力可以显著降低企业的重大错报风险以及经营风险,并且当行业竞争程度较高时,核心竞争力对于审计费用的影响效果更加显著.本研究拓展了核心竞争力经济后果的文献,丰富了审计师决策影响因素的研究结论,具有一定的理论价值和现实意义.

本文通过文本分析法构建企业核心竞争力的度量指标,实证检验了核心竞争力对企业权益资本成本的影响.研究发现:核心竞争力越强,企业的权益资本成本越低,该结论在一系列稳健性检验下仍然成立.机制检验表明,核心竞争力对企业权益资本成本的影响主要通过降低经营风险、降低信息不对称程度以及缓解代理问题三条路径实现的.进一步研究发现:(1)资源类和能力类核心竞争力均是影响企业权益资本成本的重要因素;(2)机构投资者持股可以强化核心竞争力对权益资本成本的降低作用.本文的研究揭示了核心竞争力在企业融资中的重要作用,不仅丰富了核心竞争力和权益资本成本的相关文献,同时对如何降低企业融资成本具有重要的现实意义.

文章基于委托代理理论,从实际控制人监督职能角度,研究实际控制人同时控股多家上市公司,对管理者超额在职消费的影响.研究发现,当上市公司所属实际控制人同时控股多家上市公司时,其超额在职消费水平显著高于其他上市公司.进一步研究表明,产权性质和外部治理环境能够对二者关系产生显著影响:民营企业和分析师关注度较高企业,控股多家上市公司对其超额在职消费不存在显著影响;媒体监督较高企业和十八大之后,控股多家上市公司对其超额在职消费的促进作用受到显著抑制.文章研究不仅丰富了实际控制人监督和超额在职消费领域的相关文献,同时对实际控制人如何有效治理公司具有重要的实践意义.