Substantive change or strategic response? Digital industrial convergence policy and urban green innovation

To promote green innovation in China, the emphasis on digital industry integration is crucial. Using panel data from 283 cities (2005–2021), this study examines the impact of digital industry convergence (DIC) policy on urban green innovation (GI). The research employs the difference-in-differences (DID) model and spatial measurement techniques to analyze a quasi-natural experiment involving a “triple-network” convergence pilot. The results indicate that DIC successfully promotes urban GI. Robustness tests confirm its positive effects on GI vitality in the pilot and nearby cities, especially for substantial green innovation (GTI). Mechanism analyses show that DIC directly promotes high-quality GI and intermittently supports it through talent aggregation, entrepreneurial incentives, and industry upgrading. The enabling effect of DIC varies with economic growth, city grade, and resource endowment. The study suggests that DIC benefits medium-growth-rate, high-grade, and non-resource-based areas. The findings of this paper reveal how DIC policy affect the types of urban GI behaviors and their intrinsic mechanisms under different innovation motives, and provide empirical evidence for optimizing DIC with better incentives for GTI.