Digital economy, resource endowment, and disruptive energy technologies: Evidence from China

The digital economy (DE) has significantly driven disruptive changes in energy technologies, yet its theoretical and empirical foundations remain underexplored. First, we develop an endogenous growth model that integrates the DE as a data-driven factor and energy technologies as a production factor. Second, it empirically examines the relationship between the DE, resource endowment, and disruptive energy technologies (DETs) using a spatial panel threshold model and panel data from 280 Chinese cities. We find that the DE pivotally drives DET advancement. Moreover, the spatial inflow of production factors, shaped by local wages and housing prices, mediates this relationship. Mechanism analysis reveals that urban resource endowment moderates the DE’s impacts on DETs. When urban resource endowment exceeds a threshold, the DE’s effect on DET progress intensifies. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that DE has a stronger influence on DETs in cities with weaker environmental regulations, lower public investment in S&T, and higher innovation quality. There are positive spatial correlations between the progress of the DE in neighboring cities and the advancement of local DETs. However, DETs in neighboring cities exert negative spatial spillovers. The study concludes that leveraging the DE to advance DETs is essential for managing the “co-opetition” dynamics of DETs across cities.