Digital Industry Agglomeration and Firm Innovation: Theory and Evidence

IF 2.7 3区经济学 Q2 ECONOMICS

Managerial and Decision Economics Pub Date : 2025-10-29 DOI:10.1002/mde.70041

Yaru Yang, Yingming Zhu

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Abstract

With the rapid development of the digital economy, digital industry agglomeration has become a key driver of firm innovation. This study develops a theoretical framework distinguishing between complex innovation and simple innovation from the perspective of data elements and examines the mechanisms through which digital industry agglomeration affects innovation. Using panel data of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2013 to 2021, we find that digital industry agglomeration significantly promotes firms' overall innovation, as well as both complex innovation and simple innovation. Moreover, firms' absorptive capacity positively moderates this relationship, with a stronger effect on complex innovation than on simple innovation. The innovation-enhancing effect of digital industry agglomeration is more pronounced in regions with lower marketization, varies with the intensity of environmental regulation—promoting complex innovation under stricter regulation and simple innovation under looser regulation—and is stronger in regions with higher government intervention. In addition, digital industry agglomeration generates significant positive spatial spillovers that enhance innovation in neighboring regions. These findings provide new theoretical and empirical evidence on the relationship between digital industry agglomeration and firm innovation, highlighting the importance of fostering digital industry agglomeration and strengthening firms' absorptive capacity to stimulate innovation.

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数字产业集聚与企业创新：理论与证据

随着数字经济的快速发展，数字产业集聚已成为企业创新的重要驱动力。本文从数据要素的角度构建了区分复杂创新与简单创新的理论框架，并考察了数字产业集聚对创新的影响机制。利用2013 - 2021年中国a股上市公司的面板数据，我们发现数字产业集聚对企业的整体创新有显著的促进作用，对复杂创新和简单创新都有显著的促进作用。企业吸收能力正向调节这一关系，对复杂创新的影响强于对简单创新的影响。数字产业集聚对创新的促进作用在市场化程度较低的地区更为明显，随环境规制强度的变化而变化，在规制较严的地区促进复杂创新，在规制较松的地区促进简单创新，在政府干预程度较高的地区更强。此外，数字产业集聚产生了显著的正向空间溢出效应，促进了相邻区域的创新。这些发现为数字产业集聚与企业创新之间的关系提供了新的理论和实证证据，突出了培育数字产业集聚和增强企业吸收能力对促进创新的重要性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Managerial and Decision Economics Multiple-

CiteScore

1.40

自引率

18.20%

发文量

242

期刊介绍： Managerial and Decision Economics will publish articles applying economic reasoning to managerial decision-making and management strategy.Management strategy concerns practical decisions that managers face about how to compete, how to succeed, and how to organize to achieve their goals. Economic thinking and analysis provides a critical foundation for strategic decision-making across a variety of dimensions. For example, economic insights may help in determining which activities to outsource and which to perfom internally. They can help unravel questions regarding what drives performance differences among firms and what allows these differences to persist. They can contribute to an appreciation of how industries, organizations, and capabilities evolve.