Empowering effect of big data policies on enterprise technological innovation: Evidence from China

With the rise of the digital economy, data elements have emerged as a new production factor driving global technological innovation. However, existing research has not systematically examined their influence on enterprise technological innovation or the heterogeneity of these effects. This study investigates the boundaries and optimization pathways through which data elements foster enterprise innovation. Using China’s National Big Data Pilot Policy Zone as a quasi-natural experiment, it analyzes data from listed Chinese enterprises between 2011 and 2024, employing a multi-period difference-in-differences (MPDID) approach. The findings indicate that: (1) the pilot policy enhances enterprises’ integration of data elements into innovation activities, significantly increasing innovation levels. Data elements stimulate both innovation motivation and output, confirming their role as a key production factor; (2) data elements promote innovation through multiple channels, including improved supply chain transparency, reduced coordination costs, and the restructuring of upstream–downstream cooperation, facilitating enterprise innovation; (3) data elements primarily foster independent rather than joint technological innovation, revealing barriers related to data sharing and benefit alignment in cross-organizational collaboration; and (4) the innovation-empowering effects of data elements are mainly reflected on the extensive margin (scale expansion) rather than the intensive margin (efficiency improvement), indicating that enterprises prioritize the quantity over the quality of innovation. This study clarifies the mechanisms and constraints of data-driven technological innovation at the micro level and provides both theoretical and practical guidance for refining big data policies and advancing innovation empowered by data elements.