Digital Synergy and Regional Sustainable Development: Promotion or Inhibition? Empirical Evidence from China

In the digital economy era, regional sustainable development (RSD) requires a focus on the deep-level impact of digital synergy. To explore whether and how digital synergy affects RSD, this paper utilizes methods such as the panel Tobit model and the threshold model to examine the specific impact and threshold effect of digital synergy on RSD. Additionally, the mediating effect model is employed to analyze both the macro- and micromechanisms of digital synergy on RSD from the perspectives of green technological innovation as well as the industrial structure upgrading. The findings indicate that the relationship between digital synergy and RSD exhibits an N-shaped pattern. Regional heterogeneity analysis suggests that a positive linear relationship between digital synergy and RSD existed in the eastern region while an N-shaped relationship is found in the central and western regions. The mechanism analysis reveals that digital synergy mainly promotes green technological innovation and the upgrading of industrial structure by accelerating the circulation and sharing of high-level resources and reshaping innovation models, thereby driving RSD. These findings suggest that to enhance the level of regional digital synergy, it is necessary to address the crowding-out effect and free-riding problem, strengthen the positive effects of digital synergy on green technological innovation and industrial structure upgrading, and pay attention to differentiated guidance and precise policy implementation in different regions.