IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/techno/v153y2026ics0166497226000738.html

Digital technology diffusion and occupational diversity: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Zhou, Di
  • Wang, Yuqin
  • Hao, Fei
  • Feng, Luoyu

Abstract

Digital technologies act as general-purpose technologies that drive the development of the digital economy, and digital technology diffusion (DTD) exerts broad influences on firms' digitally enabled innovation. Yet little is known about how DTD reshapes firms' labor demand within regional innovation ecosystems. Using panel data on 286 Chinese city-level regional innovation ecosystems from 2012 to 2021, we examine how within-ecosystem DTD reshapes firms' labor demand structures. The results show that higher levels of DTD significantly increase occupational diversity, with firms' innovation capabilities serving as an important mechanism. This effect varies with the ecosystem's innovation resource endowment: it is stronger in ecosystems with more abundant industrial resources but weaker in those with richer human resources. We further find that the positive impact of DTD emerges mainly in the advanced stage of digital economy development. Spatial analyses reveal that positive spillover effects of DTD also arise only in this advanced stage, operating through both geographic proximity and similarity in digital economy development levels. By linking DTD to structural changes in labor demand, this study advances research on digital innovation and regional innovation ecosystems while extending dynamic capabilities theory to the ecosystem level. The findings also highlight the importance for firms of reconfiguring workforce strategies in response to DTD-induced occupational diversification.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhou, Di & Wang, Yuqin & Hao, Fei & Feng, Luoyu, 2026. "Digital technology diffusion and occupational diversity: Evidence from China," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:techno:v:153:y:2026:i:c:s0166497226000738
    DOI: 10.1016/j.technovation.2026.103538
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166497226000738
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.technovation.2026.103538?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:techno:v:153:y:2026:i:c:s0166497226000738. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01664972 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.