A double-edged sword: Digitalization of listed companies and employee overtime

Current research on enterprise digitalization examines predominantly performance enhancement and technological transformation while largely overlooking its effects on employees' number of working hours. This study uses nighttime satellite light data to examine the impact and mechanism of the digitalization of listed companies on employees' amount of overtime work and further discusses the issue of income compensation for such work. The results show that digitalization increases employees' amount of overtime work through the market expansion mechanism and the technological innovation mechanism. In addition, digitalization can increase the total revenue and average wage of enterprises; that is, there is an income compensation effect for overtime work. This study also reveals that listed companies' more positive attitudes toward digitalization can effectively weaken the overtime work problem caused by digitalization. This study advocates optimizing the operational efficiency of digitalization while safeguarding employee rights, thus fostering sustainable synergy between organizations and workforces during digital transformation.