This study investigates the impact of environmental uncertainty on the digital transformation of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2013 to 2022. Our empirical analysis reveals that environmental uncertainty negatively affects digital transformation by inducing managerial myopia, hindering research and development (R&D) investment, and exacerbating financial constraints. However, these negative effects can be mitigated by increasing management shareholding, which aligns managers’ interests with long-term goals, providing digital transformation subsidies to lower financial barriers, and fostering a favorable legal environment to protect digital investments and innovation. These findings offer valuable insights for understanding how environmental uncertainty influences digital transformation strategies and provide practical implications for enterprises and policymakers in dynamic business environments.

The increased uncertainty caused by a sudden epidemic disease has had an impact on the global financial market. We aimed to assess the primary healthcare system of universal health coverage (UHC) during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and its relationship with the financial market. To this end, we employed the abnormal returns of 68 countries from January 2, 2019, to December 31, 2020, to test the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on abnormal returns in the stock market and determine how a country's UHC changes the impact of a sudden pandemic on abnormal returns. Our findings show that the sudden onset of an epidemic disease results in unevenly distributed medical system resources, consequently diminishing the impact of UHC on abnormal returns.

This study addresses an under-researched area in corporate behavior by examining the impact of a CEO’s cultural background on corporate overinvestment decisions. We focus on the unique cultural dichotomy between northern and southern China as our context of study. Additionally, we scrutinize the interactions between a CEO’s age and the type of company ownership in influencing overinvestment tendencies. Our aim is to enrich theoretical understanding of factors influencing corporate overinvestment, offering practical implications for businesses within and beyond China. By filling this gap in the literature, our study sheds light on the nuanced determinants of overinvestment decisions, aiding businesses in refining their investment strategies and governance mechanisms.