Breaking Down the Barriers to Innovation Quality: The Impact of Digital Transformation

While the influence of digital technologies on firms’ innovation performance has been examined in the digital transformation literature, the mechanism by which digital transformation affects innovation quality has remained largely unexplored. By analyzing a longitudinal sample of 17,216 China’s A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2021 (excluding real estate and financial firms), we employed a fixed-effects regression model to investigate the impact of digital transformation on strategic risk-taking behavior. The findings indicate that digital transformation significantly enhances innovation quality. Market competition enhances the positive effect of digital transformation on innovation quality. Further analysis reveals that digital transformation has a positive impact on dynamic capability, which in turn mediates the relationship between digital transformation and innovation quality. Furthermore, digital transformation breaks down the barriers to innovation quality by reducing financing costs and financing constraints. These findings have implications for firms’ digital strategy in emerging economies.