Digital Transformation and Managerial Cost Efficiency: Empirical Evidence from Chinese A‑Share Firms

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-689-0_28How to use a DOI?

Keywords

digital transformation; managerial cost burden; operating efficiency; management expense ratio; total asset turnover; heterogeneity

Abstract

Using a sample of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2012 to 2024, this study examines whether digital transformation (DT) is associated with lower managerial cost burden. DT is measured from digital-related keyword frequencies in the MD&A sections of annual reports. Firms with stronger DT tend to have a lower management expense ratio, while the relationship is weaker for broader expense measures. Additional tests suggest that total asset turnover is the main channel, and the effect is stronger among non-state-owned firms, firms in eastern China, and manufacturing firms.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Jing Wang
AU  - Yong Wen
AU  - Ping Peng
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/28
TI  - Digital Transformation and Managerial Cost Efficiency: Empirical Evidence from Chinese A‑Share Firms
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 2nd International Conference on Data Mining and Project Management (DMPM 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 302
EP  - 319
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-689-0_28
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-689-0_28
ID  - Wang2026
ER  -