With the digital transformation of the capitalist economy, some contemporary scholars have put forward the Techno-Feudalism narrative of the digital economy. This narrative emphasizes that digital platform enterprises, as emerging market entities in the digital economy, have many practices that are highly similar to those of feudal lords. For example, digital platform enterprises plundering user data is similar to feudal lords plundering land; digital platform enterprises collecting digital rent is similar to feudal lords collecting land rent; digital platform enterprises controlling users and workers is similar to feudal lords controlling slaves. However, this narrative has many theoretical fallacies. Marx's theory of surplus value shows that the above phenomena are essentially still the contemporary form of capital seizing surplus value through technological innovation. The techno-feudalism narrative ignores the internal logic of capital using technological iteration to reconstruct the exploitation mechanism and falls into a superficial misjudgment. In contrast, the Chinese governance practice of digital economy breaks the monopoly of platforms on data elements through the innovation of the separation of three rights of data property rights; promotes fair competition and optimal allocation of resources in the digital economy by strengthening anti-monopoly supervision and promoting the construction of digital infrastructure; proves that the socialist system can break the capital proliferation cycle and achieve "people-centered" development by building a labor rights protection system to promote the creation and sharing of value and transcending the techno-feudalism phenomenon of the digital economy.

Exploring the relationship between government subsidies, market competition, and the digital transformation of cultural and tourism enterprises (CTEs) will provide inspiration for upgrading and promoting the digitization development of China’s cultural and tourism industry. This paper theoretically and empirically evaluates the effect of government subsidies on digital transformation of CTEs by developing an evolutionary game combined with Hotelling model, and meanwhile using the econometric model. The theoretical model demonstrates that different subsidy scale will affect the evolutionary efficiency of the system under different market competition intensities. And the empirical model shows that the relationship between government subsidies and the digital transformation of CTEs is a U-shaped curve and the market competition exerts the flattening moderation on the U-shaped relationship. The findings provide guidance to both policymakers and managers.

Public emergencies reduce social welfare but may paradoxically stimulate corporate innovation through crisis-driven technological adoption. This study establishes a theoretical framework demonstrating that exogenous shocks create asymmetric innovation incentives, with digitally disadvantaged firms exhibiting stronger technological upgrading responses. Empirically, we construct a firm-level digital transformation index through textual analysis using a multi-source media database in China to show that digital transformation can endow firm resilience by boosting capital market performance during public emergencies, especially for those medium-sized enterprises due to the costs and need for digital transformation. This research adds to the evidence that public emergencies can leverage advanced technology adoption.

Utilizing data from Chinese A-share listed companies, this study investigates the effects of digital transformation (DT) on total factor productivity (TFP) and the moderating function of ESG performance. The results indicate that DT boosts TFP, but ESG performance negatively moderates this effect, revealing the green paradox. A dynamic model of factor allocation efficiency shows that DT improves capital allocation by reducing financing constraints, information asymmetry, and enhancing operational capacity. However, ESG weakens the positive link between DT and operational capacity, thus diminishing its impact on TFP. Similarly, DT increases labor productivity, but ESG undermines this effect by weakening the link between DT and labor efficiency. The positive impact of DT is stronger when firms focus on ‘Practical Application Technologies’ rather than ‘Underlying Technologies’. This effect is especially evident in smaller, asset-intensive, non-state-owned firms, and those located in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Additionally, ESG’s negative moderation is more pronounced where DT exerts a stronger positive influence. A notable distinction emerges: asset-intensive firms gain more from DT in terms of TFP, whereas ESG’s adverse effect is stronger in labour-intensive firms. This study offers a novel perspective on the interplay between DT, ESG performance, and productivity. It provides valuable insights for firms seeking to align digital strategies with ESG goals, thereby fostering technological innovation alongside sustainable development.

Enterprise digital transformation has become an inevitable trend in the digital economy era that can significantly impact enterprises. This paper takes the data of A-share listed companies from 2006 to 2022 as a sample to explore the effect of enterprise digital transformation on listed companies' corporate social responsibility and the mechanism of its role. It was found that corporate digital transformation can significantly enhance Csr(Corporate social responsibility), and enterprise digital transformation has a noticeable enabling effect on Csr, which can dramatically improve Csr. The relationship between the two still holds after the robustness test. It has been found that digital transformation can affect Csr by enhancing the green innovation capability of enterprises, the fairness of internal compensation distribution, and the sustainable development capability of enterprises. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that corporate digital transformation's impact on Csr fulfillment performance is more significant for non-state-owned firms and firms in the central and eastern regions. In addition, corporate financing constraints and government innovation subsidies influence Csr.

Digital transformation provides enterprises a catalyst for new growth. This study delves into the correlation between digital transformation and corporate innovation from 2016 to 2020 based on a sample of Chinese A-share listed companies. It seeks to understand the underlying mechanisms and pathways of this relationship. Our research suggests that digital transformation significantly bolsters a company’s innovation capabilities. The mediating mechanisms indicate that the degree of digital transformation in enterprises supports this enhancement in various ways. Firstly, it lowers production costs. Secondly, it strengthens positive market expectations. Thirdly, it aids in managing operational risks effectively. All these factors collectively augment the innovation capacities of enterprises. Further analysis shows that digital transformation can successfully counterbalance the negative influences of economic policy uncertainty on corporate innovation. These insights offer a theoretical basis for elevating the level of digital transformation in enterprises and achieving superior-quality development more effectively.

As digital transformation strategies have emerged as a primary approach for enterprises to enhance their Total Factor Productivity (TFP), it is crucial to empirically examine the impact of these strategies on TFP. For this purpose, this study considers these transformation strategies as a quasi-natural experiment and employees a propensity score-weighted difference-indifferences methodology on data from Chinese firms listed on the A-share market between 2007 and 2020. The key findings include: (1) digital transformation has a significant positive influence on TFP; (2) Generalized boosted regression trees analysis reinforces this finding after controlling for other TFP determinants; (3) notably, non-state-owned and technology-intensive enterprises exhibit a more distinct enhancement in TFP following digital transformation. These results underscore the need for firms to increase investment in research and development capabilities and digital competencies.

This study investigates the effect of government digital attention on firm digital innovation. Using data from Chinese listed firms over 2012–2020, we find government digital attention can significantly propel the improvement of firms' digital innovation levels, primarily driving an increase in the quantity of digital innovations rather than a qualitative enhancement. Further analysis indicates that government attention achieves this impact by elevating the regional digital infrastructure, increasing firms' digital subsidies, alleviating firms' financing constraints, encouraging firms to intensify R&D investment, fostering a positive attitude towards digital transformation, and consequently, boosting the overall level of firms' digital innovation.

As digital technologies proliferate, firms increasingly leverage digital transformation strategically, necessitating new orientations attuned to digital technological change. This study investigates how digital orientation (DORI)- the philosophy of harnessing digital technology scope, digital capabilities, digital ecosystem coordination, and digital architecture configuration for competitive advantage – influences firms’ environmental, social, and governance performance (ESG_per). Analysis of Chinese A-share firms from 2010-2019 reveals DORI is associated with superior ESG_per, operating through the mediating mechanism of enhanced digital finance (DIFIN) as a fund-providing facilitator for sustainability initiatives. Additional analysis uncovers important heterogeneities – private firms, centrally owned state-owned enterprises, politically connected, and emerging companies exhibit the strongest DORI - ESG_per linkages. Prominently, the study findings are validated through a battery of robustness tests, including instrumental variable methods, and propensity score matching. Overall, the results underscore the need for firms to purposefully develop multifaceted digital orientation and furnishes novel theoretical insights and practical implications regarding DORI’s role in improving ESG_per.

This research study primarily examines the digital transformation’s internal mechanism promoting enterprises’ total factor productivity (TFP) based on the matching and learning mechanism. Afterward, this research article empirically examines the digital transformation’s influential mechanism on enterprises’ TFP, using the Chinese listed companies’ data on the “A” stock market for the time period ranging from 2007 to 2019. The major study findings are as follows: (1) the improvement of the digital transformation significantly increases enterprises’ TFP. The proposed conclusion remains robust after a series of robustness- and the endogeneity test. (2) Furthermore, mechanism analysis reveals that digital transformation effectively enhances enterprises’ TFP by eliminating resource misallocation in the industry. In addition to this, digital transformation relies on the mechanism of “learning by doing” to promote the technological innovation’s spillover effect; hence, effectively enhancing enterprises’ TFP. (3) Heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that the digital transformation’s impact on enterprises’ TFP is heterogeneous in the context of enterprise size, enterprise type, and enterprise ownership. Lastly, this study puts forward that government bodies should intensify the construction and investment in digital infrastructure, promote a series of institutional reforms, and support digital technological R&D practices.