Green Innovation Column
Zhao Fang, Jiang Guoliang, Xu Yi, Li Wenting
Stimulating regional green innovation's vitality and harnessing the enabling effects of digital industry agglomeration on regional green innovation are crucial for high-quality economic and social development. Green tech innovation supports economic transformation and sustainability, enhancing efficiency and achieving sustainable development goals. Digital industries alleviate corporate costs, reduce pollution, and provide financial backing for green innovation.Understanding the impact and internal mechanism of digital industry agglomeration on regional green innovation is key to unleashing their potential and improving regional green innovation systems.
Therefore, this study first constructs a theoretical framework and discusses the impact of digital industry agglomeration on regional green innovation from the two dimensions of innovation factors and innovation environment. On the one hand, digital industry agglomeration can accelerate the agglomeration of innovation factors such as human capital, technology and capital, provide factor support for regional green technology innovation, and thus help improve regional green technology innovation capabilities; on the other hand, digital industry agglomeration will also impact external environmental factors that affect green technology innovation, such as government environmental regulation,green financial development, and market competition pressure, thereby enhancing regional green innovation vitality. In addition, considering that digital industry agglomeration is closely related to the government's digital support, marketization level, and digital foundation level, the above factors will not only directly affect the speed and scale of digital industry agglomeration,but also have an impact on the green technology innovation effect of digital industry agglomeration. Therefore, the study analyzes the possible differential impacts of digital industry agglomeration on green technology innovation from the three dimensions of government digital support, marketization level, and digital foundation level.
The study employs the panel fixed effects model, the mediation mechanism model, and the instrumental variable method to conduct tests, using the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2022. It draws three conclusions. First, digital industry agglomeration significantly improves regional green technology innovation level,and the conclusion still holds true after robustness testing by adding interactive fixed effects,adjusting samples,changing variable measurement methods,instrumental variables, etc. Second, digital industry agglomeration can not only accelerate the aggregation of technological innovation factors such as human capital, technology, and R&D funds, but also strengthen government environmental regulation, accelerate the development of green finance, and increase market competition pressure, thereby promoting the improvement of regional green innovation levels. Third, the agglomeration of digital industries has strong digital support for the government and a high level of marketization, the promotion effect of green innovation in areas with low digital basic level is stronger than that in areas with weak government digital support, low marketization level and high digital basic level.
Corresponding policy recommendations are proposed from three perspectives. First,with the development of digital industry clusters as the starting point, it is essential to promote the innovation of production technology and methods through green technology innovation,and further stimulate the two-way progress effect between digitalization and greening. To be specific, it is necessary to continue to refine the digital ecosystem to leverage the benefits of shared resources, collaborative innovation, enhanced efficiency, and cost reduction from the agglomeration of digital industries, and stimulate new momentum for regional green technology innovation and the development of a green economy. Meanwhile, it is crucial to reinforce policy guidance, align the orientation of digital industries towards green development through strategic macroeconomic policies, and improve the coordination between the growth of the green and digital economies to ensure the harmonization of ecological, economic, and social benefits. Secondly, in the future, local governments should optimize the allocation of innovation factors such as talents,technology,and capital,realize the effective connection between the innovation chain and the industrial chain,and further optimize the regional green innovation ecology,accelerate the development of green finance,and ensure the function of green finance in promoting high-quality development. Finally, different regions should adopt different development strategies, adapt to local conditions and time, avoid the "one-size-fits-all" approach, and build the advantages of digital industry clusters and release the dividends of green technology innovation in combination with their own characteristics.