Digital Finance and High-Quality Development of State-Owned Enterprises—A Financing Constraints Perspective
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear authors,
Thank you very much for sending your paper to the journal. I found it interesting while reviewing the paper. However, there are several issues as following that should be addressed in the next version:
1- At first, the paper needs to conduct proofreading by an English native speaker.
2-The theoretical issues and literature sections are poor and under develop, so it is highly recommended to include the most recent studies.
3- The first hypothesis is: Financing constraints have a mediating effect between digital finance and high-quality development of state-owned enterprises.
In this hypothesis, first, you have to check whether there is a relationship between digital finance and the high-quality development of state-owned enterprises, and you may add the mediating variable
3-In Table 2, the min of cash is negative, and from my viewpoint, it cannot be so; therefore, please clarify the reasons.
4- In Table 4, several variables have a negative sign, so you need to explain the reasons.
5-In Tables 6 and 7, there are Chines words which should be translated into English
6-You have three hypotheses; however, in the hypotheses foundation, only the first hypothesis has appeared, so all hypotheses should be mentioned here with strong theoretical issues.
Author Response
1- At first, the paper needs to conduct proofreading by an English native speaker.
Answer: The changes have been made. Thank you for your suggestion!
2-The theoretical issues and literature sections are poor and under develop, so it is highly recommended to include the most recent studies.
Answer:The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) first put forward a new phrase in 2017, indicating that the Chinese economy has shifted from a stage of high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development. Because I made a detailed study on the high-quality development of the economy, and subdivided the high-quality development of state-owned enterprises in the high-quality development of enterprises, the research on the dependent variable is very cutting-edge, and the term "high-quality development" is in full swing in the academic circle of China.
The measurement indicators of digital finance are selected from the data compiled by the Digital Finance Research Center of Peking University and Ant Financial in 2020. [Guo Feng, Wang Jingyi, Wang Fang, Kong Tao, Zhang Xun, Cheng Zhiyun, "Measuring China's Digital Financial Inclusion Development: Index Compilation and Spatial Characteristics"] Therefore, the actual measurement method is also a relatively cutting-edge and novel research. Thank you for your advice!
3- The first hypothesis is: Financing constraints have a mediating effect between digital finance and high-quality development of state-owned enterprises.
In this hypothesis, first, you have to check whether there is a relationship between digital finance and the high-quality development of state-owned enterprises, and you may add the mediating variable
Answer: I think your suggestion is very reasonable, very good, and indeed my previous shortcomings. I have made corrections with an open mind and added a section on theoretical analysis of digital finance and the high-quality development of state-owned enterprises. See hypothesis number one. Thank you for your advice!
3-In Table 2, the min of cash is negative, and from my viewpoint, it cannot be so; therefore, please clarify the reasons.
Answer: I admire you very much, found this problem, look very carefully, I also feel very surprised after seeing! Then I went through my data and the formula, and the cash flow I chose was cash flow from operating activities divided by operating income. Some state-owned enterprises have negative cash flow due to poor operating conditions. This is a very normal situation for state-owned enterprises, and I have excerpted some of my data as proof, as shown in the following figure. Thank you for your advice!
4- In Table 4, several variables have a negative sign, so you need to explain the reasons.
Answer:The negative sign of the relevant variable indicates that the independent variable is negatively correlated with the dependent variable, that is, the growth of the independent variable will lead to the decline of the dependent variable. This is reflected in Table 4. If the fixed assets are too much, the liquid capital of the enterprise will decrease, which will affect the normal development of state-owned enterprises. For example, if the liquid cash required in the investment and financing process is not enough, the long-term development of state-owned enterprises will be affected. If the financing constraint is more serious, it will restrict the loans of state-owned enterprises, which will affect the innovation ability of enterprises will restrict their research in digital finance. So the correlation between financing constraints and digital finance is negative and so on. Generally, it is understandable that the correlation between two variables changes in the opposite direction. Thank you for your advice!
5-In Tables 6 and 7, there are Chines words which should be translated into English
Changes have been made. Thank you for your advice!
6-You have three hypotheses; however, in the hypotheses foundation, only the first hypothesis has appeared, so all hypotheses should be mentioned here with strong theoretical issues.
Changes have been made. See hypothesis number one. Thank you for your advice!
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Authors,
Please find below and attached my comments and suggestions for your work.
Good luck!
Kind regards,
The Reviewer
Review Report Form
Journal: Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050)
Manuscript ID: sustainability-1948299
Type: Article
Title: Research on the Influence Mechanism of Digital Finance on the High-quality Development of State-owned Enterprises ——Analysis based on the perspective of financing constraints
Authors: Haijuan Xie , Jinyuan Wen , Xiaohui Wang *
Section: Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability
Special Issue: Digital Finance and Sustainability
Submission Date: 19 September 2022
Dear Authors,
I have carefully analyzed your article entitled “Research on the Influence Mechanism of Digital Finance on the High-quality Development of State-owned Enterprises ——Analysis based on the perspective of financing constraints”.
Congratulations for your work and valuable insights reflected in the content of the manuscript!
The structure of my Review Report Form takes into consideration two sections, namely: (A.) General overview of the article and strong points; and (B) Suggestions meant to improve your current manuscript.
(A.) General overview of the article and strong points:
Ø General background of the study and Aim of the study: According to the authors, based on the background of high-quality economic development in the new era, this document studies the influence mechanism between digital finance and high-quality development of state-owned enterprises by taking a-share state-owned listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2015 to 2020 as samples.
Ø Results of the study: In terms of the findings, the authors have mentioned the following ones: Digital finance promotes the high-quality development of state-owned enterprises by alleviating financing constraints; Grouping regression shows that digital finance has a stronger driving effect on the high-quality development of large state-owned enterprises and enterprises with high technical level. Also, the threshold regression model shows that digital finance has a single threshold effect on the high-quality development of state-owned enterprises. In continuation, based on the authors’ notes, further research shows that the higher the development level of supply chain finance, the stronger the influence of digital finance on the high-quality development of state-owned enterprises through financing constraints; the higher the shareholding ratio of institutional investors, the stronger the mediating effect of financing constraints. In addition, the research results of this paper not only enrich the research on the factors that influence high-quality development of state-owned enterprises, but also provide support for the government to formulate high-quality development policies of enterprises.
(B) Suggestions meant to improve your current manuscript:
Distinguished Authors I would kindly like to suggest the following aspects:
(1.) Closely analyzing the article, since there are some English language improvements and slight corrections that need to be taken care of. Thus, my recommendation would be to carefully proofread the entire manuscript.
(2.) Also, I have closely analyzed the format of the article, in order to check whether it follows the guidelines which are specific to the publisher. Thus, I have noticed that the current form of your work needs improvement in this regard. So, my kind suggestion is to closely analyze again the guidelines belonging to the publisher, since the article should fit exactly the publisher’s guidelines. For instance, the keywords, the subsections, the references, currently do not fit the style and the requirements of the publisher. Also, it would be highly recommendable to include in the abstract of your study more highly relevant details that refer to the research objectives and the methodology used. This would definitely be considered a plus for your scientific work.
(3.) In continuation, the suggestion would also be inserting in your article a few ideas concerning the correlation between effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the COVID-19 global crisis, sustainability and sustainability assessment, Sustainable Development Goals, while focusing on the research on the influence mechanism of digital finance on the high-quality development of state-owned enterprises, the perspective of financing constraints, since these are key focuses these days. In this context, I had the chance to read a few interesting scientific works recently, among which I would like to mention: Measuring Progress Towards the Sustainable Development Goals: Creativity, Intellectual Capital, and Innovation. In C. Popescu (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Novel Practices and Current Successes in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (pp. 125-136). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-8426-2.ch006; OECD. Measuring the Impacts of Business on Well-Being and Sustainability. https://www.oecd.org/statistics/Measuring-impacts-of-business-on-well-being.pdf; OECD. 2022. Toward sustainable economic development through promoting and enabling responsible business conduct. https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/f7813858-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/f7813858-en.
Dear Authors, congratulations once again for your work and valuable insights reflected in the content of the manuscript, and I hope my comments will be of value to you!
Kind regards,
The Reviewer
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
(1.) Closely analyzing the article, since there are some English language improvements and slight corrections that need to be taken care of. Thus, my recommendation would be to carefully proofread the entire manuscript.
The modification has been made, thank you for your suggestion!
(2.) Also, I have closely analyzed the format of the article, in order to check whether it follows the guidelines which are specific to the publisher. Thus, I have noticed that the current form of your work needs improvement in this regard. So, my kind suggestion is to closely analyze again the guidelines belonging to the publisher, since the article should fit exactly the publisher’s guidelines. For instance, the keywords, the subsections, the references, currently do not fit the style and the requirements of the publisher. Also, it would be highly recommendable to include in the abstract of your study more highly relevant details that refer to the research objectives and the methodology used. This would definitely be considered a plus for your scientific work.
I have carefully compared the standard format, checked and made relevant corrections. Thank you very much for your suggestions!
(3.) In continuation, the suggestion would also be inserting in your article a few ideas concerning the correlation between effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the COVID-19 global crisis, sustainability and sustainability assessment, Sustainable Development Goals, while focusing on the research on the influence mechanism of digital finance on the high-quality development of state-owned enterprises, the perspective of financing constraints, since these are key focuses these days. In this context, I had the chance to read a few interesting scientific works recently, among which I would like to mention: Measuring Progress Towards the Sustainable Development Goals: Creativity, Intellectual Capital, and Innovation. In C. Popescu (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Novel Practices and Current Successes in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (pp. 125-136). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-8426-2.ch006; OECD. Measuring the Impacts of Business on Well-Being and Sustainability. https://www.oecd.org/statistics/Measuring-impacts-of-business-on-well-being.pdf; OECD. 2022. Toward sustainable economic development through promoting and enabling responsible business conduct. https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/f7813858-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/f7813858-en.
I think your opinion is very good. Under the current environment of the COVID-19 epidemic, it is quite reasonable for us, as academic researchers, to add this huge impact to our paper. I have read the relevant literature you recommended and drawn some conclusions into the conclusion of my paper. Thanks for your advice!
Reviewer 3 Report
Dear Authors,
Congratulations on the work presented. I really liked the approach followed and the structure of the work.
However, I make suggestions for improvement on the presentation of the paper:
1 - Review the citation style - put the authors' names and the numerical numbering - the journal asks to use only the numbering;
2 - The tables have some Chinese characters that should be translated into English - see legend of tables 4, 5 - see table 6, 7
3 - the figure on page 13 should be improved.
Best of luck with your article.
Best Regards,
Author Response
Congratulations on the work presented. I really liked the approach followed and the structure of the work.
However, I make suggestions for improvement on the presentation of the paper:
1 - Review the citation style - put the authors' names and the numerical numbering - the journal asks to use only the numbering;
Ok, you have read it very carefully and made the modification. Thank you for your suggestion!
2 - The tables have some Chinese characters that should be translated into English - see legend of tables 4, 5 - see table 6, 7
Ok, the modification has been made. Thank you very much for your suggestion!
3 - the figure on page 13 should be improved.
Ok, the modification has been made, thank you for your suggestion!
Thank you!
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear authors,
Thank you very much for sending the revised paper. The current version is improved, however, still the theoretical issues are immature and needs much more effort to support your models. By the way, again it is recommended to conduct proofreading on the paper.
Author Response
Dear professor,
The paper has been revised according to your suggestion (marked in yellow).
Theoretical analysis was newly added in the second modification. Before, it was not well explained why the two moderating variables "supply chain finance" and "shareholding ratio of institutional investors" should be added to the research framework. Now, through internal and external perspective analysis, the study of its transmission mechanism is of great significance for the development of the current global economy.
Thank you!
Sincerely yours,
Xiaohui Wang
Guilin University of Electronic Technology
Round 3
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear authors,
Thank you very much for sending the revised paper. The revised paper stood at a standard level.
Author Response
Dear professor,
Thank you very much. I have made modifications according to your suggestions. Thank you very much for your suggestion and recognition.
Sincerely yours,
Xiaohui Wang
Guilin University of Electronic Technology
