How does government digital transformation impact enterprise innovation?

Using the “pilot construction and application of the e-government public platform based on cloud computing” as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper employs the Difference-in-Differences method to investigate the influence of government digital transformation on enterprise innovation. Using data from Chinese listed companies from 2011 to 2020, the paper finds that (1) the government digital transformation promotes enterprise innovation. (2) The mechanism test demonstrates that the government digital transformation improves the business environment and encourages enterprise digital transformation, thereby promoting enterprise innovation. (3) The heterogeneity analysis shows that the beneficial effect of government digital transformation on enterprise innovation is stronger in regions with higher levels of economic growth, and state-owned enterprises have been more positively influenced than non-state-owned enterprises. This study examines the positive effects of government digital transformation within the context of digital development and furnishes new evidence to enhance enterprise innovation.