Digital Transformation of Value Chains and CSR Performance

Abstract

With the accelerated evolution of the digital transformation of economic activities, the digitalization of the different parts of the value chain, such as manufacturing, marketing, and management, has increased significantly, thereby changing the form of organizational production management while affecting how corporate social responsibility (CSR) is achieved. Therefore, in this study, we examined the relationship between the digital transformation of value chains and CSR performance and the moderating role of property ownership and market dependence. The results show that the digital transformation of value chains can improve CSR performance. When the three types of digital transformation are conducted at the same time, compared with digital manufacturing transformation and digital marketing transformation, digital management transformation has a greater impact on CSR performance. Non-state-owned enterprises and enterprises with higher market dependency show greater improvement in their CSR performance than state-owned enterprises and enterprises with lower market dependency as a result of the digital transformation of value chains. Furthermore, we found a certain degree of value mismatch between the digital transformation of the different value chain links of enterprises and the different dimensions of social responsibility. Specifically, the digital transformations of manufacturing, marketing, and management activities only exert a significant impact on shareholder responsibility, public responsibility, and shareholder and employee responsibility, respectively. This result indicates that the digital transformation of the entire value chain needs to be further optimized and integrated to achieve social responsibility values that match the value chain. This study not only helps enterprises identify the shortcomings in the digital transformation of the value chain but also provides development ideas for enterprises to realize the two-wheel drive of business value and social value through the digital transformation of the whole value chain.