Data assetization, supply chain resilience, and leverage ratio efficiency: Evidence from China

This study selects listed firms on the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share markets in China from 2010 to 2024 as the initial research sample. To ensure data validity, the following procedures are applied to the raw sample: (i) Financial and insurance firms are excluded because their capital structure and business nature are special. (ii) Observations under special treatment status such as ST and *ST are removed to avoid distortions from abnormal operations. (iii) Samples with severe missing values in data assetization, supply chain resilience, or key financial variables are excluded. (iv) To mitigate the influence of extreme values on regression results, continuous variables are winsorized at the 1st and 99th percentiles. After these screenings, a final unbalanced panel dataset is obtained. Financial data of listed firms are primarily sourced from the CSMAR and Wind databases. Textual data for measuring data assetization are collected from annual reports and social responsibility reports, while supply chain-related data are obtained from the supply chain relationships and supplier/customer information tables in the CSMAR database.This study constructs a corporate data assetization index using text analysis and establishes an unbalanced panel fixed effect model to examine the relationship between data assetization and corporate leverage. The analysis introduces supply chain resilience as a mediating variable and investigates the transmission mechanism through which data assetization affects corporate leverage. The analysis meanwhile examines the moderating role of supply chain concentration from the perspective of supply chain structural characteristics. It finds that: (i) Data assetization significantly increases corporate leverage. This result indicates that data assetization strengthens the debt financing capacity of firms. (ii) Supply chain resilience plays a significant mediating role between data assetization and corporate leverage. Data assetization enhances supply chain resilience and reduces operational risk. This mechanism therefore exerts a restraining effect on corporate leverage. (iii) Supply chain concentration shows a significant moderating effect on the relationship between data assetization and corporate leverage. The influence of data assetization on leverage becomes stronger in firms with higher supply chain concentration. The results provide new empirical evidence for understanding the internal mechanism of corporate capital structure adjustment under data assetization.