The impact of digital inclusive finance on enterprise digital technology innovation: empirical evidence from the Chinese manufacturing industry

Enterprise digital technology innovation plays a crucial role in China’s scientific and technological revolution as well as industrial transformation, with digital inclusive finance emerging as a significant catalyst for such innovation and providing robust support for the stable development of the real economy. This study innovatively employs the GLM3 large language model and the BERT model to identify digital technology patents. Based on data from 3313 Chinese A-share manufacturing listed companies from 2011 to 2022, this research investigates the influence pathways and mechanisms through which digital inclusive finance impacts enterprise digital technology innovation. The findings indicate that digital inclusive finance positively drives enterprise digital technological innovation. Expanding the coverage of digital financial services is key to effectively enhancing enterprises’ digital innovation capabilities. Digital inclusive finance significantly boosts enterprise digital technological innovation by alleviating financing constraints and increasing R&D investment. The financial background of executives moderates this relationship negatively, while the intensity of financial regulation exhibits an inverted U-shaped moderating effect on the relationship between digital inclusive finance and enterprise digital technological innovation. The incentive effect of digital inclusive finance on enterprise digital technology innovation is more pronounced in central and western regions and non-state-owned enterprises. This paper proposes a new incentive mechanism to enhance the digital technology innovation capability of manufacturing enterprises, suggesting that relevant departments should accelerate the transformation of the financial regulatory system, construct a targeted, timely, and penetrating regulatory technology system, and effectively guide digital inclusive finance to inject new momentum into the development of enterprise digital technology innovation while preventing and resolving systemic risks.