Exploring Digital–Real Integration in the Construction Industry: Driving Force of Digital Technology Innovation Network Embedding

Digital–real integration is an important driving force to propel industry transformation, upgrading, and sustainable development. Existing studies have considered digital–real integration as an independent variable, but few have considered it as a dependent variable. This study, taking the construction industry as the research scenario, investigates the impact of network embedding on digital–real integration from a complex network perspective. Using digital technology patents identified by a novel method as the database, this paper constructs a digital technology innovation network. Based on this, it develops a novel indicator to measure digital–real integration at the micro level as the dependent variable, investigates the direct influence of network embedding on digital–real integration, and assesses the moderating role of node clustering in this process. Furthermore, utilizing enterprises’ cash flows as a basis, this paper categorizes enterprises into growth, maturity, and decline stages, and examines the effect of embedding on digital–real integration across each of these stages. This study revealed that structural and relational embedding positively impacts digital–real integration, whereas knowledge element clustering exhibits a negative moderating effect. Additionally, an inverted U-shaped relationship was observed between the knowledge element ratio and digital–real integration. It is noteworthy that relational embedding becomes a key factor for construction enterprises in improving digital–real integration level, and construction enterprises can optimize the proportion of knowledge elements to find new transformation opportunities in the decline stage. This paper provides theoretical and practical guidance for construction enterprises to effectively configure their own knowledge structure to enhance the digital–real integration level.