ANALYSIS OF FACTORS INFLUENCING THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF HEALTHCARE ENTERPRISES DURING POST-PANDEMIC ERA OF COVID-19

Abstract

At present, digitalization in many industries is changing and gradually permeating in all fields of life, of which the digitalization in healthcare has gradually been recognized and entered on the stage. Covid-19 is the biggest "Black Swan Event" in recent years, disrupting the pattern of China and the world. Impacted by Industrial Digitalization Upgrade and the pandemic, the process of digital reform in the healthcare industry has been further accelerated, represented by AI + pharmaceuticals, telecare, and SaaS systems etc.. All these new digital tools and technologies have successively received large amounts of financing in the primary market, and among them, some high-quality enterprises have had successful IPO. Meanwhile, many traditional medical enterprises are also keeping pace with the times through digital transformation, which all indicate the importance of digitalization of medical enterprises. We hope to explore in this paper the factors behind the digital transformation of medical enterprises that have significantly promote the digital reform of enterprises, and whether the factors such as enterprise R&D, enterprise scale, and enterprise digitalization promotion efforts will accelerate the digitalization process. Based on this background, this paper will conduct in-depth research in this direction. First, in the chapters of Research Background and Research Significance, this paper expounds the issues studied in this paper, and points out the relative economic and social significance; and summarizes previous scholars' research in this field, including the application of digital transformation in other industries, the beneficial efforts on business development and the related factors to accelerate the digital transformation of enterprises. Then, it uses relevant theoretical analysis, such as Solow's Neoclassical Growth Model and other theories to explain the issues studied in this paper. At the same time, based on relevant theories and literature review, relevant hypotheses are being put forward. According to the current literature research, we assume that enterprise scale, enterprise R&D, and enterprise financialization level are crucial factors in promoting the process of enterprise digitization. Therefore, this paper collects relevant Annual Reports of all healthcare enterprises on the listing market which have already completed the digitalization or arecurrently undergoing digital transformation in 2020 and 2021 after this pandemic. In this paper, we use the frequency of the core word "digitalization" in the Annual Report as the Explained Variable to measure the process of digital transformation of the enterprises; concurrently, we use Enterprise R&D Level, Enterprise Scale and Enterprise Product Commercialization Level as Explanatory Variables in this paper, and complements the relevant Control Variables to construct a Panel Regression Model. Besides, the Industry Fixed-Effect and Time Fixed-Effect have been used respectively to control the relevant time trend, and the combination of both was called the "Two-Way Fixed-Effect Model". In addition, the research adopts the method of Cluster Robust Standard Error to adjust in the empirical demonstration to reduce the interference of heteroscedasticity. Finally, according to the conclusions verified by the combination of theory and empirical research in this paper, relevant policies and suggestions are included.