Public digitalization and enterprise innovation in China’s high-tech listed companies

The digital economy is deeply embedded in enterprise production and operational processes, promoting the improvement of enterprise innovation. We established a theoretical model to verify the positive relationship between public digitalization and enterprise innovation. Moreover, we considered China’s high-tech listed companies from 2011 to 2019 as a sample to test the research hypothesis. Based on a fixed effects model, we found that public digitalization significantly promotes enterprise innovation input (such as R&D input or R&D personnel), output (represented by patent applications), and efficiency (compared by input and output). By heterogeneity analysis, we find that government digital support is not significant in promoting enterprise innovation. And the promotion effect of public digitalization on enterprise innovation is less evident in the sample of non-high-tech listed companies. An intermediary mechanism test also indicated that public digitalization significantly decreases financing, labour, cooperation, and transaction costs and promotes enterprise innovation. This study clarifies the innovation cost-saving effect of public digitalization in promoting enterprise innovation, which supplements relevant theories. In practice, this study reminds policymakers to pay attention to the creation of a public digital environment.