Impact and Mechanism Analysis of Digital Transformation on Corporate Performance: Evidence from the Mediating Effect of Job Structure

Impact and Mechanism Analysis of Digital Transformation on Corporate

Performance: Evidence from the Mediating Effect of Job Structure

Wang Guanghui^1,2 Wang Jun²

（1.Center for Quantitative Economics, Jilin University; 2. School of Business and

Management, Jilin University, 130012,Changchun , Jilin)

Abstract: Against the backdrop of the global digital economy trend and China’s national strategy of developing the Digital China initiative, corporate digital transformation has emerged as a crucial engine for economic development. However, few systematic studies have explored how digital transformation affects corporate performance through the reallocation of human resources. Based on the resource orchestration theory, this paper takes China’s A-share listed companies from 2016 to 2023 as research samples and uses job structure as the proxy variable for human resource reallocation. Arandom-effects model is applied to investigate the mechanism through which digital transformation impacts corporate performance. The empirical results show that digital transformation significantly improves corporate performance, and such improvement is mainly realized via adjustments in job structure. Specifically, digital transformation increases the proportion of technical and sales employees and consequently lifts firm performance; technological R&D and market expansion serve as the core channels for digital transformation to empower corporate operations. Meanwhile, digital transformation substantially reduces the share of production, administrative and financial staff, yet adjustments to these job categories fail to boost corporate performance, which may stem from rising overall costs and firm asset scale. This study identifies the essential role of human resource allocation in digital transformation and provides empirical evidence for enterprises to design relevant digital transformation strategies.

Key words: Digital Transformation; Corporate Performance; Job Structure; Firm Asset Scale;Resource orchestration Theory

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