Digital-Real Technological Integration and Supply Chain Finance: A Dynamic Capabilities Perspective

The deep integration of digital technologies with the real economy at the technological level, known as digital-real technological integration (DRI), has become a critical priority for driving industrial transformation and corporate development. However, much attention has been given to how digital technologies foster innovation in supply chain finance (SCF) models, while relatively limited attention has been paid to the role of firm-level DRI in the operational foundations of SCF. Drawing on dynamic capabilities theory, this study examines the relationship between DRI and SCF performance, particularly its financing-scale dimension, and investigates the mediating roles of operational efficiency and innovation capability as well as the moderating effects of environmental uncertainty (EU) and supply chain risk (SCR). Using 9732 firm-year observations of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2010 to 2023, we employ firm- and year-fixed effects regressions, bootstrap mediation tests, interaction analyses, and two-stage least squares (2SLS) estimation. The results show that DRI is positively associated with short-term financing intensity. Both operational efficiency and innovation capability exhibit significant mediating effects. EU does not significantly moderate the relationship between operational efficiency and short-term financing intensity, but it strengthens the positive effect of innovation capability. SCR strengthens the positive effects of both operational efficiency and innovation capability on short-term financing intensity. Further heterogeneity analyses show that the DRI–SCF association is stronger in less-marketized regions, non-digital-economy industries, and firms with more concentrated supply chains, while the difference across firm size is not statistically significant. These findings highlight the distinct capability pathways through which DRI is associated with firms’ financing outcomes and show that the value of these capability manifestations varies across different environmental conditions.