Public data openness and private enterprise growth: The roles of local resource allocation and cross-regional collaborative innovation

This study examines the impact of public data openness on the growth of private enterprises, addressing the limited focus on private enterprises in existing literature. Exploiting the staggered launch of provincial public data open platforms in China as a quasi-natural experiment, a panel of Chinese listed private firms from 2009 to 2022 is analyzed using a staggered difference-in-differences approach. The results show that public data openness significantly enhances private firm growth. Mechanism analyses indicate that this effect operates through improved local resource allocation and firms’ integration into cross-regional innovation networks. Further heterogeneity analyses reveal that the growth-enhancing effect varies with firm characteristics, platform openness themes, and government data governance capacity. Overall, the findings confirm the inclusive nature of public data openness and provide policy-relevant implications for provincial governments seeking to improve public data governance and for private enterprises aiming to utilize public data more effectively.