Data-Driven Disclosure Governance in Blockchain-Adopting Firms: Evidence from Supply Chain Finance and Firm-Size Thresholds
Main article
Abstract
Blockchain adoption creates a new empirical problem for business data analytics: firms do not merely install a digital technology, they also generate auditable data trails that may reshape disclosure governance, financing transparency, and investor-facing information quality. This study develops a data-driven disclosure governance framework for blockchain-adopting firms and examines whether the governance value of blockchain is transmitted through supply chain finance and conditioned by firm-size thresholds. Building on a panel architecture of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2015 to 2023, the article reframes blockchain adoption as a disclosure evidence problem rather than a simple technology dummy. We integrate annual-report text signals, announcement evidence, supply-chain-finance intensity, disclosure-quality scores, and firm-level governance controls into a multi-stage empirical design. Fixed-effects estimates show that blockchain evidence is positively associated with disclosure governance quality after controlling for profitability, leverage, growth, cash flow, ownership concentration, inventory intensity, board independence, audit quality, firm effects, and year effects. Mediation analysis indicates that supply chain finance provides a significant transmission channel because traceable transaction records improve credit verification and reduce the financing information gap. Threshold analysis further shows that blockchain governance effects become stronger once firms pass two size cutoffs, suggesting that data infrastructure, internal control resources, and external scrutiny jointly determine whether blockchain evidence becomes disclosure discipline. The findings contribute to business data analytics by showing how distributed-ledger evidence can be converted into measurable disclosure governance indicators and by offering a practical analytical architecture for regulators, investors, lenders, and managers.
