Xuan Dong

1 month ago | nature.com | FU Xin |Xuan Dong |Chunhua Chen |Huimiao Yu

Firms are increasingly shifting towards digital channels, yet the implications of this shift remain underexplored. Using a unique database of customer behaviors extracted from the top 2000 mobile apps developed by companies in China, this study investigates the impact of mobile apps on inefficient corporate investments. The results indicate that metrics such as active user count, usage duration, and app launch frequency can mitigate inefficient investments, notably by curtailing overinvestment. These findings survive a series of robustness checks such as altering the measures of inefficient investment, extending the analysis to include the top five apps, incorporating H-share listed firms, and employing instrumental variables regression. Moreover, the mechanism analysis indicates that mobile apps help reduce inefficient investments by lowering agency costs and relaxing financial constraints. Further analysis examines the business models of these apps (paid vs. free) as well as their reputation mechanisms, revealing that the pricing strategies of apps and the reputation of corporate brands also play a role in how the adoption of mobile apps affects inefficient investment.

Nov 26, 2024 | mdpi.com | Xuan Dong |Yan Gao |Rongjin Wang

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Apr 1, 2024 | mdpi.com | Rongjin Wang |Xuan Dong |Yan Gao

All articles published by MDPI are made immediately available worldwide under an open access license. No specialpermission is required to reuse all or part of the article published by MDPI, including figures and tables. Forarticles published under an open access Creative Common CC BY license, any part of the article may be reused withoutpermission provided that the original article is clearly cited. For more information, please refer tohttps://www.mdpi.com/openaccess.

Feb 14, 2024 | mdpi.com | Yan Gao |Xuan Dong |Rongjin Wang

All articles published by MDPI are made immediately available worldwide under an open access license. No specialpermission is required to reuse all or part of the article published by MDPI, including figures and tables. Forarticles published under an open access Creative Common CC BY license, any part of the article may be reused withoutpermission provided that the original article is clearly cited. For more information, please refer tohttps://www.mdpi.com/openaccess.