Riding the Wave of Data:Government Data Governance Empowering Corporate Digital Innovation
China's digital innovation continues to face the challenge of low-quality development,marked by being extensive but not refined and large-scale but not strong.There is a significant gap in the number of high-value digital technology patents,with the United States,Japan,and South Korea consistently ranking in the top three.China is yet to transition from a"major player"to a"powerhouse"in digital innovation.To achieve this,the State Council released the Action Outline for Promoting Big Data Development in 2015.Then,many provinces and cities established dedicated data management agencies,such as the Big Data Administration,responsible for building digital infrastructure,fostering data trading markets,and developing digital industries.These agencies have streamlined the flow and allocation of data resources,representing a key governance innovation for local governments in the digital age.Investigating whether government data governance can enhance corporate digital innovation and overcome China's low-end innovation lock-in is of great practical importance.Drawing on an enhanced TOE(technology-organization-ecology)theoretical framework,this study delineates a process centered on digital innovation that encompasses technology initiation,organization development,and ecological application.It elucidates the potential mechanism through which government data governance empowers enterprise digital innovation and carries out empirical analyses through quasi-natural experiments conducted by the Big Data Management Bureau.The study reveals that government data governance significantly enhances enterprise digital innovation,offering fresh insights for the government to fully exploit data resources and boost innovation vitality in the distinct institutional context of China.Furthermore,government data governance fosters three viable pathways for enterprise technological digital innovation:(1)the technology initiation pathway,involving data accessibility,digital scenario testing,and digital talent support;(2)the organization development pathway,comprising top management's digital innovation focus,tolerance for digital innovation trial and error,and willingness for corporate digital investment;(3)the ecological application pathway,encompassing competition in enterprise digital innovation,cooperation in enterprise digital innovation,and government support for digital innovation.The impact of government data governance on enterprise digital innovation hinges not only on a range of driving forces such as infrastructure empowerment,industrial advancement,and financial backing in the rigorous data governance environment but also requires collaborative progress in softer elements such as rights preservation,digital attention,and legal safeguards.While government data governance has partially dismantled regional platform monopolies,it is yet to overcome governance barriers or bridge the digital divide.The overall analysis showcases a diverse digital innovation landscape,where the"technology diffusion effect"surpasses the"public resource effect."This study makes three key contributions to the literature.First,it enhances academic understanding of the economic impacts of government data governance.By using the establishment of China's National Big Data Administration as a quasi-natural experiment,it examines whether it can effectively drive corporate digital innovation.The findings offer empirical support for building a digital China and fostering high-quality economic growth,while providing practical solutions to address low-quality digital innovation in enterprises.Second,the study extends the TOE framework in the context of China's government data governance.Drawing from the disruptive innovation theory,the dynamic capabilities theory,and the digital ecosystem platform perspective,it expands the TOE framework of Tornatzky et al.into a triadic model of"technological initiation-organizational development-ecological application."This approach systematizes China-specific digital innovation challenges and offers theoretical support for overcoming technological bottlenecks and boosting China's global innovation leadership.Finally,the study reveals the dynamic evolution of technological diffusion and public resource effects in government data governance.By exploring governance barriers,platform monopolies,and the digital divide,it finds that government data governance has a heterogeneous impact,with technological diffusion effects outweighing public resource effects.This provides insights for policymakers to better guide and adjust policies to promote equitable data resource allocation.
Government Data GovernanceDigital InnovationTOE TheoryDifference-in-Differences Model
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
