Abstract: The digital economy is impacting traditional industries in a cross-fertilization manner. Information technology, big data and artificial intelligence are widely used in manufacturing, logistics, marketing and other scenarios, driving the digital transformation of enterprises. Nowadays, enterprises are in a dynamic environment, where digital transformation will be driven by a combination of internal and external factors. People are the most active element in business activities. On the one hand, managers play a central role in the selection and implementation of a company's digital strategy. On the other hand, since transformation involves the reorganization of all dimensions of the enterprises, the active participation of core employees is also a key element affecting the successful implementation of digital transformation. Therefore, an in-depth exploration of effective incentive contracts that can motivate both the management and core employees is a key issue needed to be addressed in the current research on internal drivers of digital transformation.
According to the optimal contract theory, a reasonably designed incentive contract can help solve the prevalent principal-agent problem. For the principal-agent problem faced in the process of digital transformation, the equity incentive can also have a positive governance effect. Firstly, the equity incentive can enhance the risk-taking level of incentive objects, which then helps managers to make reasonable digital strategy decisions and also helps core employees to actively adapt to the new requirements of the digital era. Secondly, by setting scientific elements of the equity incentive contract, it can realize the binding of the interests of each subject with the long-term interests of the enterprises. Furthermore, the equity incentive can change the time orientation of the incentive objects, so that managers and core employees enjoy the long-term value of the company and reduce the potential moral hazard.
To explore how to stimulate the endogenous dynamics of corporate digital transformation, this paper studies and interprets the mechanism and contextual factors of the influence of the equity incentive on corporate digital transformation based on the optimal contract theory, using A-share listed companies in Shenzhen and Shanghai from 2009 to 2020 as research objects. It is found that the implementation of the equity incentive plan can promote the digital transformation of enterprises, and the higher the dynamics of the external environment and the more internal slack resources, including sedimentary slack resources, non-sedimentary slack resources and human resource redundancy, the more obvious the promotion effect of the equity incentive on the digital transformation of enterprises. Furthermore, through the mechanism testing, it is found that the equity incentive can influence corporate digital transformation through multiple paths such as enhancing R&D risk-taking, improving the internal control quality, and inhibiting the true surplus management.
The theoretical contributions of this paper are as follows. First, on the basis of using the Python crawler and text mining technology to measure the degree of enterprises' digital transformation, we explore the role of the equity incentive in promoting the digital transformation of enterprises, expanding the core view of the optimal contract theory from the perspective of the digital strategic change, and enriching the research field of antecedent variables of the digital transformation. Second, it integrates the core viewpoints of the industry-based view and the resource-based view, takes the external environment and internal conditions of enterprises into account, clarifies the moderating effects of environmental dynamics and slack resources on the relationship between the equity incentive and the digital transformation, and verifies the synergistic effects of internal and external factors influencing the digital transformation of enterprises. Third, it explains the influence mechanism of the equity incentive on the digital transformation of enterprises, namely, the equity incentive can influence the digital transformation through multiple paths, such as enhancing R&D risk-taking, improving the internal control quality and suppressing the true surplus management, which opens the “black box” between the equity incentive and the digital transformation.

Key words: Digital Transformation, Equity Incentive, Environmental Dynamics, Slack Resources, Text Mining

摘要： 数字经济时代,激发企业数字化转型的内生动力具有重要的战略意义。本文基于最优契约理论,以2009—2020年A股上市公司数据为样本,在运用Python爬虫和文本挖掘技术测度企业数字化转型程度的基础上,研究了股权激励对企业数字化转型的影响机制及情境条件。结果表明:实施股权激励可以有效促进企业数字化转型,环境动态性和冗余资源等内外部条件在股权激励对企业数字化转型的影响过程中发挥正向调节作用。机制检验发现,股权激励通过提升研发风险承担水平、提高内部控制质量以及抑制真实盈余管理行为等多重路径影响企业数字化转型。本文通过揭示股权激励计划对数字化转型的助推作用及其机制,拓展了企业数字化转型前因与股权激励治理效应的研究视阈,也为数字化战略导向的股权激励机制设计提供有益借鉴。

关键词: 数字化转型, 股权激励, 环境动态性, 冗余资源, 文本挖掘