On April 17, 2025, at 14:30 pm, the 40th Forum on Digital Technology and Economic Finance Frontiers was successfully held. The theme of this lecture was "Fund Manager Skill, Investment Constraints, and Trading Along Supply Chains", and the guest speaker was Professor Bingxuan Lin from University of Rhode Island. The lecture was chaired by Ziguan Zhuang, Professor of the Finance School and researcher at the Innovation and Talent Base for Digital Technology and Finance. More than 30 teachers and students from the School of Finance participated in this lecture.

At the beginning of the lecture, Professor Ziguan Zhuang briefly introduced relevant information of Professor Bingxuan Lin to the participants and expressed his sincere gratitude for his availability to give a lecture at our college despite his busy schedule.

Commencing with the significance of supply chains in asset management, Professor Bingxuan Lin proposed that fund managers with deep supply chain insights could achieve excess returns through concentrated investments in vertically linked stocks. "The complexity of supply chain networks presents unique opportunities for active management," he emphasized. "This strategy not only captures industry synergies but also mitigates investment risks through informational advantages."

Presenting empirical analysis of Chinese mutual fund data from 2000 to 2024, Professor Bingxuan Lin revealed a key finding: Funds concentrating holdings along supply chains outperformed peers by 2.3% in annualized returns after controlling for risk, industry concentration, and active management metrics. Illustrating cross-holdings patterns across supply chain tiers, he explained, "This alpha stems from fund managers' dynamic tracking of nodal enterprises, such as anticipating raw material price fluctuations' cascading effects on downstream profits."

The study also identified institutional constraints limiting strategy effectiveness. Professor Bingxuan Lin highlighted regulatory boundaries through fund investment scope restrictions: "Contracts prohibiting cross-sector allocations cause funds to miss vertical integration opportunities." Data indicated strictly constrained funds suffered 1.8 percentage points in potential return losses compared to flexible counterparts.

To address these limitations, Professor Lin proposed dual solutions: innovating fund investment frameworks to permit cross-industry allocations, and enhancing fund manager specialization. "Specialization acts as leverage to amplify decision efficiency within constraints," he noted, citing research showing supply chain-focused managers achieved superior risk-adjusted returns through precise stock selection.

During the Q&A session, Professor Bingxuan Lin engaged participants with practical insights. Addressing a query about technology sector applications, he deconstructed semiconductor industry research methodologies from wafer manufacturing to end applications, offering novel perspectives on social learning mechanisms. The lecture concluded successfully.

Speaker Introduction

Bingxuan Lin is currently a Professor of Finance at the University of Rhode Island, USA, and holds a Ph.D. in Finance from Georgia State University, USA. His research areas primarily include corporate mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, information disclosure, Chinese capital markets, and behavioral finance. He has published over 40 papers in top-tier domestic and international academic journals such as Accounting Horizons, Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Journal of Business & Economics Research, Journal of Financial Research, International Review of Financial Analysis, Applied Economics, Economic Research Journal, Journal of Management Science, Journal of Financial Research, and Accounting Research. Professor Lin has taught at multiple renowned institutions, including Harvard University, Sun Yat-sen University, and Zhongnan University of Economics and Law. He has served as a Guest Editor for Journal of Accounting and Public Policy and European Journal of Finance, and as a reviewer for international top-tier journals such as Applied Economics, Corporate Governance: An International Review, Journal of Economics and Finance, Journal of International Business Studies, Finance Research Letters, Financial Review, and Journal of Banking and Finance. With extensive teaching and research experience and broad academic influence, he has received numerous awards, including the Best Paper Award from Risk Management and Insurance Review (2008), the Best Paper Award at the Northeast Decision Sciences Institute Conference (2006), the Best PaperAward from Journal of Insurance Issues (2004), and the Best Paper Award at the International Insurance Society Annual Meeting (2003). He has also been honored with the "Outstanding Professor" title by Sun Yat-sen University, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Capital University of Economics and Business, and other prestigious institutions.

Frontier Forum for Digital Technology and Finance introduction

Recent years have witnessed a dramatic acceleration in a digital revolution in economic sectors and a rapid adoption of the new generation of information technologies, such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, big data, etc. These technologies effectively set off the digital economy. It has become a key driving force in creating global economic growth, improving the modernization level of governance capabilities, and promoting high-quality economic development in China. In particular, digital finance is the most important part of the digital economy. To explore the development direction of the cross-integration of digital technology and finance, the Innovation and Talent Base for Digital Technology and Finance is hosting the “Frontier Forum for Digital Technology and Finance”, in collaboration with the School of Finance, Wenlan School of Business, Economics School, School of Information and Safety Engineering, School of Statistics and Mathematics, School of Public Finance and Taxation of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (ZUEL). This lecture series will invite the well-known scholars at home and abroad in digital technology, digital economy, digital finance, and other related fields as guest speakers, providing an open and cutting-edge academic exchange platform for interdisciplinary research on digital technology and finance.