The study examines how maturity mismatched behavior influences firms’ digital orientation, and the moderating

effect of digital financial inclusion (DFI) on maturity mismatched behavior. We analyzed a sample of over 3000

Chinese listed firms over the period 2011–2020 and identified the “passive mismatch view.” We found that firms’

maturity mismatched investment could impede their digital orientation and that DFI further weakens the

negative relation between firms’ maturity mismatched investment and digital orientation. We further find that

maturity mismatched investment impedes digital orientation for firms with more agent problems and maturity

mismatched investment could impede its digital orientation through weakening managerial attitude toward

potential risks.