The Impact of Digital Economy on Entrepreneurial Activity:A Perspective on Human Capital

The digital economy fosters the expansion and upgrading of human capital, thereby enhancing entrepreneurial success rates and stimulating innovation potential, which together generate a virtuous cycle. Drawing on provincial panel data from China spanning 20132022, this study employs fixed-effects and mediation models to empirically test the interplay among the digital economy, human capital, and entrepreneurial dynamism. The findings reveal that, digitalization significantly can boost entrepreneurial activity, but in the long run its effect may follow an inverted U-shaped trajectory. Moreover, the growth of the digital economy can strengthen regional entrepreneurial vitality through human capital accumulation. Further heterogeneity analysis indicates that this positive influence brought by digital economy is more pronounced in western provinces, where the digital economy exerts a stronger stimulative effect on entrepreneurial activities compared with other regions due to national support and the relatively late start of the region itself. Based on these insights, enhancing entrepreneurial momentum requires intensified investment in human capital, deeper advancement of digital transformation, and greater attention to interregional coordination and complementarity.