Research on the Path Mechanisms and Spatial Spillover Effects of Digital-Intelligent Empowerment on the High-Quality Development of the Cultural Industry

Digital-intelligent transformation has become a key driver of industrial upgrading and regional development, yet its effects on the cultural industry remain underexplored, particularly regarding transmission mechanisms and spatial spillovers. Using provincial panel data from 31 provinces in China from 2014 to 2023, this paper constructs comprehensive indices of digital-intelligent transformation and the high-quality development of the cultural industry through the entropy method, and empirically examines the direct effects, mediating mechanisms, and spatial spillover effects of digital-intelligent transformation using fixed-effects models, mediation models, and spatial Durbin models. The results show that, first, digital-intelligent transformation significantly promotes the high-quality development of the cultural industry, and this conclusion remains robust after endogeneity tests and a series of robustness checks. Second, cultural capital accumulation and cultural consumption structure upgrading are important transmission channels through which digital-intelligent transformation empowers the high-quality development of the cultural industry, capturing production-side and consumption-side mechanisms respectively. Third, the empowering effect of digital-intelligent transformation exhibits significant regional heterogeneity, with the effect being more prominent in regions with higher levels of economic development. Fourth, digital-intelligent transformation generates significant spatial spillover effects, and at the current stage, interregional relations are characterized by competition effects and siphon effects, with the indirect effect on neighbouring regions being negative while the total effect remains positive. These findings suggest that digital-intelligent transformation not only drives local cultural industry development but also reshapes regional patterns through spatial interactions. The paper provides theoretical and empirical evidence for advancing digital-intelligent transformation in the cultural industry and for promoting coordinated regional development.