Abstract: With the rapid development of the digital economy, digital inclusive finance provides an opportunity for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to upgrade their positions in global value chains (GVCs) through its advantages of high coverage, low cost, and high efficiency. Using empirical analysis to test the impact of digital inclusive finance development on MSMEs’ GVC position upgrading and its underlying mechanisms, the results demonstrate that digital inclusive finance significantly promotes the upgrading of MSMEs’ positions in GVCs through three channels: alleviating financing constraints, enhancing human capital, and improving total factor productivity. Furthermore, this impact exhibits significant heterogeneity, with more pronounced promotional effects on labor-intensive enterprises, low-technology enterprises, and enterprises in regions with slower economic development and low export dependency. Meanwhile, digital inclusive finance can enhance regional innovation levels, particularly in non-eastern and inland regions, where the promotional effect is more pronounced. Compared with inter-industry spillover effects, the intra-industry spillover effect of GVC position upgrading strengthens the positive impact of digital inclusive finance on MSMEs’ GVC position upgrading.

Key words: digital inclusive finance, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, global value chains, regional innovation, spillover effects