The significant benefits of digital transformation and the substantial capital it demands often pose a challenging choice for firms, perplexing their investment and financing decisions. Consequently, this study aims to explore the dilemma between expectation gaps of digital transformation and maturity mismatch (short-term loans used as long-term investment) and its resulting economic consequences.
This study assumes reliance on corporate behaviour and contingency theory. Using a sample of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2007 to 2022, this study makes empirical study to explore the relationship between expectation gaps of digital transformation and maturity mismatch. It also explores the contingent role of industry competition pressure and financial slack as moderating factors.
As negative expectation gaps of digital transformation expanding, corporate maturity mismatch shows an inverted U-shaped relationship, which is more significant in the high-tech industry; external industry competition pressure and internal financial slack exert a positive moderating effect on the inverted U-shaped relationship; the economic consequence indicates that expectation gaps of digital transformation increases the risk of bankruptcy and reduces the performance of firms by exacerbating corporate maturity mismatch.
The originality of this study include these: integrating digital transformation within the framework of performance feedback theory and analysing how different contingency conditions impact corporate maturity mismatch, which can help firms understand whether corporate maturity mismatch are necessary after encountering digital transformation difficulties; revealing the risks caused by the expectation gap in digital transformation, and providing evidence to support structural reforms in financial supply for developing countries.
