Abstract
Along with the popularity of the mobile Internet and the
development of digital technology, financial institutions have shown a digital
development trend, and digital finance (Internet lending) has become a new
channel for entrepreneurial financing. In view of this, based on CHFS 2019 data,
this paper includes traditional finance and digital finance in the same
analysis framework, and from two dimensions: single participation and compound
participation, the study finds that: (1) Both single and compound participation
forms can have a significant positive impact on residents' entrepreneurial
choices, and relatively speaking, the compound participation form has a more
significant promotion effect than the single participation form; (2) Among the
single forms of participation, Internet lending has the lowest promotion effect
and its role is still to be explored, while private lending has the highest
promotion effect, which indicates that private lending is still the main
financing channel for entrepreneurs; (3) Among the compound forms of participation,
the compound financial participation mode without bank lending has the lowest
promotion effect, which indicates that bank lending is extremely important to
residents' entrepreneurial choices. Further, the heterogeneity analysis reveals
that financial services participation has a more significant facilitating
effect on entrepreneurial choices made by low-endowment households, both in
terms of single participation and composite participation. In summary, this
paper argues that the role of formal finance should be strengthened, the
development of informal finance should be guided, and the inclusive role of
digital finance should be further explored through the construction of digital
infrastructure and the improvement of residents' financial literacy.
JEL classification numbers: D80, L10, O14.
Keywords: Digitalisation of financial institutions, Financial
services participation, Digital finance, Internet lending, Entrepreneurial
activity.