Government roles in legalizing China’s digital business environment: evidence from Beijing, Shanghai, and Chongqing

Abstract The digital business environment has become a focal point of global competition. As the world’s second-largest economy, China’s digital economy has a huge scale, and its exploration of institutional innovation and governance has enlightening significance for the international community. However, existing research mainly focuses on traditional business environments and lacks a systematic analysis of the role of government in digital business environments. This study aims to clarify the specific role, path differences, and influencing factors of local governments in the legalization of the digital business environment. Selecting Beijing, Shanghai, and Chongqing as samples to conduct semi-structured interviews and qualitative comparative research on relevant government departments. Research has found that, firstly, although the government has achieved results in optimizing the approval process and shortening the start-up time of enterprises, there are still regional differences; Secondly, Beijing and Shanghai have entered a further stage of improving the quality of public services and ensuring the rule of law, while Chongqing is still in the stage of basic reform; Thirdly, the disadvantages of location, talent, and finance in non-first tier cities constrain the development of their digital business environment. Overall, China is gradually narrowing the gap with international best practices such as B-READY and still needs to continue efforts in cross-border rule integration, legal transparency, and service-oriented government. This study points out the diverse paths of local governments in legalizing the digital business environment, and also provides institutional references for other developing countries.