Digitalisation and technological innovation: panaceas for sustainability?

In light of the digital technology revolution, digital economy (DIG) and technological innovation (TEI) have emerged as potential auspicious drivers for sustainable development (ENS). To date, a systematic time – and quantile-varying investigation of the relations between DIG, TEI and ENS remains absent in the current literature. From the perspective of asymmetric dynamics and quantile dependency, this study offers a quantitative assessment for the impact of digitalisation and technological innovation on sustainable development by utilising the quantile autoregressive distributed lag model to fill the research gap. The results show that the influences of DIG and TEI on ENS are significantly positive in the long term, but negligible in the short run. The location asymmetry reveals that digitisation plays a more significant role at medium quantiles, while the effect of technological innovation is strong at both lower and higher quantiles. Technological innovation is proven as a more influential catalyst for promoting sustainability at most quantiles, whereas digitisation turns to be a priority catalyst at the high level of sustainability. In the face of structural shifts, DIG and TEI exert heterogeneous impacts on sustainable development. Finally, targeted policies are proposed to promote sustainable development through the synergy of technological innovation and digital economy.