关键词: 数字普惠金融, 企业创新, 金融错配缓解, 中介作用

Abstract:     Technological innovation is the driver for economic growth. The world economic pattern is undergoing in-depth adjustment. China is at a critical junction in transforming growth mode, optimizing economic structure, and switching growth drivers. Quality development led by technological innovation is the key to overcome obstacles stunting economic development. The efficacy of innovation-driven strategy is, however, lies in the firm′s initiative in and potential of innovation. For a long period of time, the patent innovation output of firms in China has been featured by large quantity, low quality, and speculative strategy, locking China at the low end of the global technological chain. But for firms, an innovation project is a typical long-cycle, high-risk, and high-cost activity with huge capital input and uncertain output. Information asymmetry at the marketplace may result in issues like adverse selection and moral risks, leading to dual constraints by high adjusted costs and financing costs. Therefore, stable and adequate financial resources are an essential guarantee for continuous innovation at firms. Efficient and low-cost financial services are key elements for the quality output of firm innovation.
   Finance is a rare resource. Appropriate financial allocation means its flow towards efficient sectors and firms. But financial resource allocation shows a mismatch featured by low-efficiency and imbalance, that is the finance mismatch between allocation structure and efficiency. The significant finance mismatch in the traditional financial system is closely associated with a low initiative for and low output efficiency of innovation among Chinese firms. In recent years, driven by emerging technologies like big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, a new type of inclusive financing mode called digital inclusive finance has emerged and instantly become the focus of academia. It is of practical significance in investigating whether digital inclusive finance mitigates finance mismatch and propels firm innovation through its low-threshold, low-cost, and convenient services.
    The rapid development of science and technology promotes the integration of finance and digital information, gives rise to a series of new financial businesses, and brings huge changes in people′s life. Accelerating the building of an innovation-driven country is a major task in implementing new development philosophy and developing a modern economic system. Against this backdrop, it is of practical significance to examine the impact of digital inclusive finance on firm innovation. This study adopts data of firms listed on A share of China from 2011 to 2018, matches digital inclusive finance of prefecture level cities with firm innovation, and investigates the impact of digital inclusive finance development on firm innovation and its mechanism on an empirical basis. We find the development of digital inclusive finance in regions promotes the innovation output of firms significantly. The conclusion remains consistent when a series of robustness checks like endogeneity test, and replacing dependent variables are conducted. Investigations on impact mechanism reveal the development of digital inclusive finance mitigates finance mismatch in traditional financial service and delivers incentive effect on firm innovation. Further investigation on the heterogeneity of digital inclusive finance′s impact on firm innovation shows digital inclusive finance mitigates finance mismatch and promotes innovation more evidently for firms in central and western China. This demonstrates digital inclusive finance indeed delivers inclusive effects and offers solutions to financing issues in underdeveloped regions. As for the impact of firm ownership, the results show digital inclusive finance promotes innovation at state-owned firms more evidently compared with its impact on private firms.
   The conclusion of this study is of vital significance in promoting the development of digital inclusive finance, optimizing financial resource allocation, improving the level of independent innovation in China, and spurring the building of an innovation-driven country. We propose the following policy suggestions.
    (1) The government should promote the stable development of digital inclusive finance and optimize financial resource allocation. The development of digital inclusive finance can, to some extent, mitigate the degree of finance mismatch and deliver incentive effect on firm innovation, spurring the development of the real economy. At present, China is at a critical junction for the transformation from high-speed growth to high-quality growth. It should follow the trend of science and technology, encourage the integration between information technology and the financial market, and promote the development of diverse financial services. Efforts should be made in promoting the development of digital inclusive finance, optimizing financial resource allocation, and lowering the financial service threshold. The purpose is to unleash the inclusive effect of digital inclusive finance and promote its role in fueling technological innovation and new growth drivers.
      (2) The government should implement policies tailored for different firms and regions. One of the major differences between digital inclusive finance and traditional finance is that the former is able to identify the firm with innovation capability and offer targeted financial service, reducing the room for rent-seeking. The government should better its services by offering innovation support services for firms with different ownership, providing ample room for the development of private firms, and encouraging state-owned firms to shake off innovation inertia and to harness their potential in innovation. In particular, the government should deepen financial system reform in the central and western regions to promote coordinated and balanced development of digital inclusive finance among regions in order to fully unleash the incentive effect of digital inclusive finance on innovation. 
    (3) The supervision authority should improve regulatory policy to prevent systematic risk in the digital financial system. Digital inclusive finance integrates finance, technology, and the Internet. Its rapid development improves the efficiency of financial resource allocation and brings huge convenience for micro firms. The boundary between regions and financial institutions is also blurred, which may result in systematic financial risks. Therefore, the supervisory authority should develop a new supervision model and improve regulatory policy to tackle the potential risk which may result from the development of digital inclusive finance. Meanwhile, the evaluation of and accurate management of risks from digital inclusive finance worth further study.

Key words: digital inclusive finance, enterprise innovation, financial mismatch mitigation, mediating role