The Impact of Board Network Centrality on Enterprise Digital Transformation: A Case Study

Abstract

Since the digital economy was elevated to a national strategy, the process of enterprises breaking through growth bottlenecks through digital transformation has implicitly involved profound changes in corporate governance logic. This study preliminarily reveals that the value of a board's social network position has transcended traditional internal oversight and structural regulation, becoming a core variable driving transformation. By deconstructing its network centrality mechanism through perspectives like social network theory and validating its link to financial performance via case studies of Haier Smart Home and Midea Group, this research provides empirical support for governance shifting from “structure-oriented” to “relationship-oriented” in the digital era. However, these conclusions are currently limited to the home appliance sector and do not account for the moderating effect of property rights. Future research could extend to the new energy sector or incorporate property rights variables to deepen studies on digital governance. Translated with DeepL.com (free version) So, what are the specific pathways of influence? Research shows that board network centrality positively drives digital transformation through four pathways: information acquisition, resource integration, decision-making efficiency, and risk aversion, and that digital transformation also partially mediates the relationship between the two. Data from listed companies in the home appliance industry from 2019 to 2022 further supports this finding: for every one-unit increase in board degree centrality, the level of digital transformation increases by 0.32 units, which in turn leads to a 0.0896-unit increase in return on equity. Ultimately, the credibility of these conclusions is based on data verifiability-the data and cases used are all from the annual reports of listed companies, the Guotai An database, and the public reports of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, which also provides theoretical support and practical guidance for companies to optimize their board networks.