Financial Inclusion in the Era of the Platform Economy: Opening the black box of digital lending to MSMEs in China

各种研究表明，普惠金融体系在减少贫困、加快经济增长、从而促进人类发展方面具有益处(Sarma和Pais，2011年)。在这方面，为微型、小型和中型企业创造包容性的经济环境是充分发挥所述积极影响的关键条件。然而，尽管它们在经济体系中发挥着重要作用，但世界各地的微型、小型和中型企业在获得信贷方面面临着相当大的限制，这可以说是增长和创新的关键条件。近年来，信息和通信技术的巨大发展以及随后技术驱动的私营部门企业(金融科技)参与[组织]小额融资领域，使人们燃起了在未来有效应对这一挑战的希望。尽管到目前为止，这些公司全面提供信贷在世界大多数地区仍是一个遥远的愿景，但中国的发展已经发生了相当不同的转变。近年来，阿里巴巴和腾讯等多边平台(MSP)利用特定企业生态系统产生的广泛数据，进入金融服务领域，成为谢等领域的世界领先者。Al(2015)将其命名为“互联网金融”。这种转变在阿里巴巴子公司蚂蚁金服的巨大崛起中尤为明显。蚂蚁金服是世界上最有价值的初创企业独角兽，迄今已向中国2000多万家中小企业发放了贷款。此外，基于其服务成功促进金融普惠的猜想，中国互联网金融公司正在与迅速向国际扩张的国际组织合作。然而，尽管越来越多的证据表明，数字贷款有效地解决了中国面临的组织金融排斥的挑战，并假设这种成功可以而且应该在世界其他地区复制，但令人惊讶的是，到目前为止，中国互联网金融的发展轨迹、内部运作和结构在很大程度上仍然是一个封闭的“黑匣子”。继Bailey和Barley(2019)以及Hyysalo等人之后。Al(2019年)呼吁从多个角度研究数字技术，并将审查从创新延伸到制度变革，拟议的研究项目旨在通过在不同层面和不同空间调查中国的数字贷款现象来打开这一现象。基于一家中国互联网金融公司和一家中小微企业的多方面人种学研究，该研究项目解决了以下研究问题：MSP是如何确立自己作为中国中小企业正式融资的领先来源的？互联网金融公司的平台生态系统是如何由借贷过程塑造和塑造的？来自互联网金融公司的数字信贷如何塑造组织借款人的会计做法？通过这样做，该项目不仅有助于建立一个关于快速发展的互联网金融现象及其对中小企业影响的新兴研究机构，而且还有助于研究平台扩张的机制和更广泛地加速向平台经济的转变。

A variety of studies have shown the benefits of inclusive financial systems for reducing poverty as well as accelerating economic growth and thus enhancing human development (Sarma and Pais, 2011). In this context the creation of an inclusive economic environment for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) is a key condition for the described positive effects to fully unfold.Yet, despite their vital role in the economic system MSMEs worldwide face considerable constraints when accessing credit, arguably the key condition for growth and innovation. In recent years the vast development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and the subsequent involvement of technology driven private sector businesses (FinTech) in the area of [organizational] micro-finance has fuelled the hope to effectively address this challenge in the future. Although a comprehensive provision of credit by these companies remains at this point of time a distant vision in most parts of the world the development in China has taken a considerably different turn. Drawing on a wide-range of data generated in firm-specific ecosystems, Multi-sided platforms (MSPs) such as Alibaba and Tencent have in recent years entered the financial service sector and become the world leader in what Xie et. al (2015) coin as 'Internet Finance'. This transformation is particularly visible in the vast rise of Alibaba's affiliate Ant Financial, the most valuable start-up unicorn in the world which has so far issued loans to more than 20 million MSMEs in the country. Furthermore, and based on the conjecture that their services successfully promote Financial Inclusion, Chinese Internet Finance companies are in cooperation with international organizations rapidly expanding internationally. However, despite growing evidence that digital lending effectively addresses challenges of organizational financial exclusion in China and the assumption that this success can and should be repeated in other parts of the world, it is surprising to note that the development trajectory and inner workings and structures of Internet Finance in the country have so far largely remained a closed 'black box'. Following Bailey and Barleys (2019) as well as Hyysalo, et. al's (2019) call to study digital technologies from multiple perspectives and to extend scrutiny beyond innovation to institutional changes, the proposed research project aims to open the 'black box' of digital lending to MSMEs in China by investigating the phenomenon on different levels and in different spaces. Drawing on a multisided-ethnography at a Chinese Internet Finance company and an MSME, the research project addresses the following research questions: How have MSPs established themselves as a leading source of formal financing for MSMEs in China? How is the platform ecosystem of Internet Finance companies shaped by and shaping the lending process? How does digital credit from Internet Finance companies shape the accounting practices of organizational borrowers? By doing so, the project not only contributes to an emerging body of research on the rapidly developing phenomenon of Internet Finance and its effects on MSMEs but also to research examining the mechanisms of platform expansion and the accelerating shift towards a platform economy more broadly.