In the digital economy era, the deep integration of information technology represented by the Internet and big data with various traditional industries is constantly affecting consumption upgrading and social transformation, and greatly changing the ecological environment for the survival and development of corporates. In this context, more and more incumbent corporates combine traditional business model with new technology and new customer demand, in order to obtain competitive advantage, and business model innovation has become a hot topic of theoretical research.
    Existing studies generally believe that, different from product innovation and technological innovation, business model innovation can not only explore and meet diversified individual needs of customers in a fast and high-quality way, but also help corporates realize value creation by adding new value growth points. Business model innovation can also reshape the industrial chain by recreating resource transactions, and help companies gain competitive advantages by reducing transaction costs. However, some studies have found that in the actual operation level, the conflict between old and new resources in the implementation of business model innovation will also bring great uncertainty to the success of corporate operation. In reality, there are more and more cases of listed companies′ stock prices crashing due to the failure of business model innovation. Therefore, business model innovation is neutral for corporates and capital market, and a slight mistake will bring various challenges to corporate governance and financial activities in the design and execution process.
   Among many financial activities influenced by business model innovation, financing needs are one of them. Corporates implementing business model innovation usually have high capital expenditure in product value chain construction, market development and other aspects. Therefore, in the process of business model implementation, the cash flow level of corporates is relatively low and the financing demand is usually high. Furthermore, existing earnings management literature indicates that enterprises with high financing needs are also inclined to obtain more bank loans through earnings management. Therefore, there is an influence path between business model innovation and earnings management, that is, business model innovation will affect the earnings management behavior of enterprises by influencing the financing needs of enterprises.
    This study takes the 2012-2017 A-share listed companies as the research object and constructs the index of business model innovation to explore whether business model innovation can influence on earnings management in the digital economy era. The results show that, first of all, business model innovation has a significant positive impact on accrual earnings management and real earnings management. This is mainly because business model innovation has increased the financing needs of companies, thereby increasing the level of earnings management. Secondly, it is found that the impact of business model innovation on different earnings management is different: its impact on accrual earnings management is mainly caused by positioning innovation, profit model innovation and cash flow structure innovation. Its impact on the real earnings management is mainly caused by business system innovation. Finally, the heterogeneity analysis from the perspective of governance shows that, compared with the group with high analysts′ attention and the group with high media attention, the impact of business model innovation on earnings management is more significant in the group with low analysts′ attention and the group with low media attention.
    This study contributes to literatures in two ways: (1) It has expanded and deepened the research boundaries of business model innovation. In the past, relevant research on business model innovation mainly focused on the product market, exploring the impact of business model innovation on corporate performance and competitiveness. Few documents explored the impact of business model innovation on corporate information disclosure and investor behavior from the perspective of capital markets. This article discusses these issues in depth from the perspective of earnings management. (2) It enriches the relevant literature on the factors affecting earnings management. Although some scholars have begun to pay attention to the impact of strategic decision-making on earnings management, because strategic decision-making mainly focuses on the analysis of strategy formulation methods and formation processes, and lack of research on specific strategy implementation measures, it is impossible to explain the corporate organization caused by the strategy implementation process. The impact of a series of adjustments in structure, resource investment, and business structure on earnings management behavior. From the perspective of business model innovation, this article explains to some extent the impact of the specific links of strategy implementation on earnings management, which helps to deepen the understanding of earnings management.
    This study also has important policy implications. At present, the government has successively issued a number of policies such as "Internet Plus" and "Innovation-driven Development Strategy" to encourage enterprises to carry out business model innovation activities. In this context, how to successfully integrate the digital economy with the real economy through business model innovation has become a hot issue of great concern to all sectors of society. This article answers the above questions from the perspective of earnings management, which will help promote the effective implementation of national strategies.